110 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
oe n Be: 
March, 1909 
New Developments in Stenciling 
RNhiy 
B 
SS 
AN i S 
« 
as patterns can often 
be bought through 
magazines, the fact of not being skilled 
with the pencil is no longer a hindrance 
to good work. 
Stenciling is an art in which the 
craftworker can rise to any height if 
she aims to do original and distinctive 
work. ‘There are several women in 
America who have revolutionized this 
craft and who have worked on indi- 
vidual lines and have really done some- 
thing worth while. One of the newest 
stencilers whose work is now being 
recognized as of the highest quality is 
Miss Bessie M. Menage. She studied 
design in the Art Department of the 
University of Chicago, and while there 
made herself proficient in the art of 
stenciling. She made a name for her- 
self in decoration in the Middle West, 
and, like so many women decorators, 
prefers to carry out her work in detail. 
One of the illustrations shows a 
frieze and curtain designed and exe- 
cuted by Miss Menage. The walls 
were of a soft gray brown. The stencil 
is done in three colors, each differing 
only slightly in tone from the wall 
color. The design was taken from a 
horse chestnut tree in the garden out- 
side the library window. ‘The chestnut 
burs are dull gray terra cotta, the 
leaves a gray, green, and the conven- 
tional lines of the 
design of a dull gray 
blue. Another tone 
is used in the lines 
at the bottom of the 
stencil, which are 
terra cotta, intro- 
duced so as to bring 
the frieze into har- 
mony with the ma- 
hogany furniture 
with which the room 
is furnished. The 
tones in the rug are 
repeated in the 
frieze, making. a 
most harmonious 
and restful room. 
The windows are 
draped with Ara- 
bian net and an 
inner curtain is of 
gray green monk’s 
cloth ornamented 
with a stencil adap- 
Biase I THIN the last few years so much has been 
/ written on stenciling that there is hardly 
any household where at least one member 
has not become proficient in the art. 
work is easy to do, being mechanical, and 
By Mabel Tuke Priestman 
The 
hice ices 
. . Me eas we TES fo 
ae enc Cet < Pies ‘ 
yy 3 $ % 3 > ‘i 
3 
‘Ves fie hl Ze, Le OMI 
wegen: mine «season os . 
~. eee 4 % ° e 
IN~a 43 . 2 
Of | GS 
—e— i Page i fap gitcs 
a Ne a —  — + 
Pe mys 
LP @ : 1 
. x fsige | 
wee page =" @ . i 
' - i "ee | 
, Seg 4, ] 
oe ae a 
eat sis 
at | Ve 
ee ve 
Jes te 
Ue Lee b 
oO. ° i | 
pg ss EEA mo hem: Stans eee © jf 
INO fl Ps 71 “4 igh 24 
eh ie a 4 od ek: 2 
Sf: oe 6k * % i 
1 DG SIL re | 
BP carer ocr BS BOGE site . j 
Be a SR cS TIE NEE WEL OE aa as 
Table cloths shown at the National Society of 
Craftsmen exhibition 
Cutting the stencil 
tation of the chestnut design. Portieres of the same material 
are stenciled with the wider design of the frieze. 
In the same house a lotus design is used as a frieze in the 
drawing-room. ‘The owner wished to have the decorations 
taken as far as possible from the flora of the neighborhood 
and a pond of Egyptian lotus near by 
suggested a good motif. Miss Menage 
made a conventional design of buds and 
flowers and stenciled them in eight 
colors on perfectly lusterless walls. 
Very few stencilers have the courage 
to do elaborate and extensive work of 
this sort when they have to stand on an 
elevated platform, and they usually are 
content with making the designs and 
superintending a fresco painter, so that 
it is encouraging to find that a woman 
has successfully stenciled many friezes 
with as much ease and skill as though 
she had been trained as a fresco painter. 
Oil colors were used mixed with turpen- 
tine and winton white, which gave a 
lusterless effect to the colors. 
Those who have gone deeply into 
’ stenciling work out for themselves cer- 
tain methods. When stenciling on 
cloth Miss Menage, instead of using the 
color direct, always makes a pad of 
several thicknesses of old cotton cloth 
which she saturates with pigment. She 
uses this pad instead of applying the 
brush directly to the paint or dye, and 
she finds that in this way there is prac- 
tically no danger of the color spreading 
on the material. When using oil paints 
on fabrics she mixes them with benzine 
until they are as thin as ordinary dye. 
A pinch of sugar of lead acts as a fixatif © 
and keeps the color from flowing under 
the stencil. For ma- 
terials that are not 
to be washed fre- 
quently she prefers 
dye, and the only 
fixatif she uses is 
mucilage. 
Another . woman 
whose. stenciling 
makes for original- 
ity and beauty is 
Mrs. Lora Eliza- 
beth Hencke. Her 
designs are yery 
be!ld in character, 
and a unique innova- 
tion in her work is 
the strap hinge ef- 
fect with which she 
joins narrow pieces 
of Russian crash to- 
gether. She is par- 
ticularly fond of 
working on this 
material and, as it 
