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DRESSING-TABLE. 
Many families have plain wash-stands such as are 
shown in our illustration, which may be made into 
charming dressing-tables, in the following manner: 
Take a piece of plank four inches wide and eight feet 
long, which screw firmly against the back of the 
stand ; on this nail a circular piece of board, one foot 
six inches in diameter, around which fasten an um¬ 
brella frame, covered with muslin and neatly lined, 
which will form a scalloped edge, which must be 
stiffened with wire. 
On this is arranged the canopy, made of figured 
swiss, over pink or blue muslin ; plait a circular piece 
over the top and around the edge, sew a strap twelve 
inches in width around each edge of it, which are 
fluted and puffed ruffles; below this depends a curtain 
one and a half yards long, also ruffled on the .edges and 
drawn up into festoons. Beneath this, around the edge 
of the frame, is fastened the long curtains, draped back 
and arranged on the arms or towel rack of the stand, 
which must first be covered neatly with colored 
muslin and puffs of swiss. 
The table is covered first with a colored cover, and 
curtains of the lined swiss, finished to correspond with 
the hangings. This curtain must open in front in order 
to allow access to the drawer and shelf beneath, which 
is thus utilized as a receptacle for shoes, &c.; a dress¬ 
ing glass, cushion and toilet set ornament the stand, 
and bows of ribbon finish the different points where 
the curtains are fastened. The lambrequin and 
window curtains are easily understood at a glance. 
A BEAUTIFUL ART—PHOTOGRAPHIC 
PRINTING. 
Among many of the new and fascinating arts which 
yearly appear to help make home more enjoy¬ 
able, is the new art of photographic printing, 
thus described by a California lady, who has 
succeeded splendidly with the really valuable 
Christmas gifts; I am now going to describe 
a process called photographic printing, by 
which charming pictures may be taken of our 
lovely wild field plants, for albums, screens, 
or any other purpose which may suit the fancy 
of the collector. The beginner had better 
commence his experiments with leaves alone, 
afterwards simple plants like nemophilas or 
gillias can be taken entire. The first step is to 
lay in a stock of materials. 
We must have good, well dried specimens 
of all the leaves—maple, abutilon, pear, cherry; 
every kind is desirable ; but those in which the 
veins are well relieved make the best pictures, 
and ferns are the most beautiful in form. Lay 
the leaves into an old book, and dry with 
medium pi-essure. 
Now for the chemicals. We must have a 
lot of sensitized paper, and had better, for 
economy, make it ourselves. As soon as this 
pretty accomplishment becomes fashionable, as 
it surely will, we shall be able to buy these 
papers, as we do materials for wax flowers and 
the like, but at present we cannot. Select a 
dozen sheets of the best wove letter paper, 
eschewing cream laid or any which shows the 
manufacturer’s wire marks when held to the 
light. We shall want a dozen spring clothes, 
pins or pegs, and a few quarts of rain water. 
If you have only spring or hard water, this must be 
distilled before using. 
Now put. in a medicine bottle, holding at least half letting it become equally wetted. Then hang it by 
a pint, half an ounce (four drachms) of prussiate of one of the corners from the edge of a shelf and let it 
potash, in four tablespoonfuls of the rain water. When dry. This part of the business must be done in a 
it is dissolved, so that none is visible in the bottle, dark room, by the light of a candle. Candle light 
does not affect the paper. Daylight would ruin it for 
this purpose. Now have two sheets of clear glass. Lay 
; on one of them three or four sheets of whii e blotting pa¬ 
per; uponthisthe dried and sensitized prussiate of potash 
paper with the prepared surface uppermost, and upon 
this place the fern frond or other desired leaf with the 
back down. (All this, remember, in the dark room.) 
Then lay on the second sheet of glass, and put the 
clothes- pin clamps on the edges to hold it in place. 
Some clear sunshiny day, take your prepared object 
into the light, and leave it exposed for a half hour or 
more to the direct rays of the sun. If you watch the 
paper while nature is printing it, you will observe the 
part not ,covered by the leaf changing to a bright blue, 
deepening with the tint of exposure until it is nearly 
black. When you take it out of the glasses, you 
have a yellow leaf on a blue ground. Wash the paper 
several times in the clear rain water, and every trace 
of the potash will disappear from the yellow' ground. 
Freshly sensitized papers are the best, but you can 
preserve them in absolute darkness if you wish. 
These nature-printed photographs may be colored 
true to nature, in autumn tints, or the vernal hues of 
spring. There are other methods ; one, in which the 
ordinary albumenized paper of photographers is used, 
after dipping it into a solution of nitrate of silver, sixty 
grains to the ounce of distilled water. Float and dry 
as in the previous case. When the picture is painted, 
and the glasses removed, wash it in rain water, to 
remove the nitrate of silver; then wash again in a 
solution of hyposulphite of soda; strength, two ounces 
to half a pint of water. You will need to keep the 
pictures, made with nitrate of silver, immersed 
in the hyposulphite solution for fifteen minutes, in 
order that they may be permanent. 
A great many impressions can be made in 
the same day by economizing time and space 
on the papers. They may be ruled off into 
sizes fit for album cards, and the leaves selected 
so as to leave near margins, before the paper 
is sensitized, by numbering the squares and 
specimens, the spaces will be quickly filled, and 
four or more impressions taken at once. The 
washing and drying process is thus economized 
also. It is pleasant to have both the upper 
and lower sides of some leaves taken. Very 
thick leaves, like the California laurel, should 
be rejected. Alfileria is a beautiful leaf for 
this purpose; so are many of the acacias. 
The nitrate of silver process is the most per¬ 
fect, but it is fatal to clothes and delicate hands, 
and should only be attempted by a careful and 
dexterous operator. Jeanne C. Carr. 
DRESSING-TABLE, 
pour half of the solution in a dinner plate, and float 
on its surface a piece of paper of the size intended, 
Handkerchief, cigar and tobacco boxes ? 
wall pockets, dinner mats, napkin rings, may 
be all made of tin, worked with a pretty pat¬ 
tern, bound with ribbon, and finished with 
bows, &c. Tobacco boxes and wall pockets 
should be lined with cambric. A v T all pocket 
I have is composed of four pieces, front, back, 
and twm long triangular pieces for the sides. 
The front is w'orked in a bunch of blue forget- 
me-nots and daisies ; the pieces are lined with 
blue cambric, bound with ribbon as near the 
same shade as possible and then joined together; 
is suspended by ribbons, fasteued at the corners 
back and front, and joined at the top with a 
bow' ; each of the four corners of the front are decorated 
with a little bow of ribbon. 
WINDOW DECORATED WITH WORKED 
AND MUSLIN CURTAINS. 
BALANCE 
