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DRAWING ROOM WALL DECORATION. 
A drawing room in the usual acceptance of the 
term is substantially a lady’s room. It is there she 
presides and reigns supreme as mistress of the man¬ 
sion and queen of her company. As a rule, she fills 
it with articles of bijouterie and knick-knacks—arti¬ 
cles which ladies of taste are sure to admire. The 
style of its decorations should be in accordance with 
its general aspect when in use — light, cheerful and 
rich. 
'The ceiling, if it be a moderately sized room, and 
not enriched with ornament in relief, may be tinted 
buff. A stile may be added next to the cornice, which 
may be tinted a warm gray; an ornament may be 
stencilled at each corner; and a smaller one in the cen¬ 
tre of each side, between corner and corner, and con¬ 
nected by lines either broken and stencilled or run 
continuously. 
In the designing and connection of the corners and 
centre ornaments, care should be taken to cause the 
lines to flow out of the corners and form a part of 
them. A broad line and a fine line look better than a 
single line, or than two of the same width, either fine 
or broad. They may be either broken lines with 
stripes or dots, or interlace one with the other. The 
color for the broad line may be a dull warm gold or a 
golden brown; the fine line may be either a tint made 
from vermilion and white, or a reddish mauve. The 
broad line should not be more than three-quarters of 
an inch broad on a ceiling of ordinary height, and the 
fine line about one-eighth. 
The ornaments may be done in two or three tints, 
as may be desired. When only part of an ornament 
is gilt, the rest of it should not be a cream or gold 
color, or other tone of yellow, as these tints blend 
with the gold, and we thus avoid an abrupt line. 
The walls may be done in several ways ; when the 
room is large, a good style is to divide the walls into 
proportionate panels, with stiles and pilasters and gold 
mouldings. The centre panel on each wall may be 
filled with a mirror of the same dimension, and fin¬ 
ished in the same manner as the other panels. Much 
care is required in the selection of glass for this 
purpose, especially in cases where two glasses are 
exactly opposite each other; for if they are not per¬ 
fectly level and equal in surface, they distort every 
thing in the room; the cornices of the room and door¬ 
ways will appear broken and falling down, and as 
there is a. double reflection which causes as it were an 
endless vista of rooms, the distortion is multiplied each 
time, but if the mirrors are good and true, the effect 
produced is excellent. 
Ornaments should never be attempted, except they 
can be well and carefully done, and they should 
always have a meaning. The wild flowers of the 
months are a very suitable decoration, unpretentious 
and well adapted for arrangement. Targe masses 
of flowers are objectionable. Colored ornaments, 
enclosing medallions, either of the seasons or classic 
heads, is also a good style. A less pretentious style 
of treatment is to put each wall or side of the room 
into one panel, with gold mouldings as before, but in 
this case each panel should have a centre ornament of 
proportionate size, placed exactly in the middle of the 
top lines of mouldings, in order to give elevation, and 
break the long straight line which is always objection¬ 
able. 
The form of these and of the corner ornaments must 
be determined by the style of the room. The centre 
of the panel may be either tinted or tilled in with a 
suitable diaper pattern paper. 
The color of the stiles of the room will depend upon 
that of the paper of panels. A good way is to color 
the walls of some light, pleasing tint in distemper, 
then decorate with a floral border around the upper 
part of the room, about six inches wide, enclosed in 
simple gold beads and forming a frieze; a narrow 
ornamental border in one color may also be put around 
the bottom of the wall, about six inches from the 
skirting. 
Many paper hangers make a practice of running 
borders, and even gold moulding, around the door 
casings and around the chimney piece; this is a vulgar 
practice,, something in the paper trunk style and 
should be avoided. 
And remember this, that it is not always the most 
expensive work which looks the best. 
M. Quad. 
WAX ELOWERS. 
A sheet of white tissue paper is best to work on. 
Place this on the table before you. Now, obtain the 
various petals, calyx, stamens, &c., in the following 
manner: Taking the flower to be imitated, gently 
remove one of each size petals, beginning with the 
outside. From these cut a pattern of white paste¬ 
board ; now select the proper color and thickness of 
wax, and from it cut with a pair of scissors the num¬ 
ber of petals and calyx required. The wax should be 
held in the left hand, with its dull side upwards; on 
this place the pattern with the longest part of the 
petal running lengthwise of the sheet of wax. The 
scissors should be frequently dipped in water to pre¬ 
vent the adhering of the wax. Letting them stand 
in warm water a short time before using is an advan¬ 
tage. 
In cutting out a round petal, as the rose, the 
lower part of the scissor blades should be used, not 
the points; these should never be allowed to meet, 
except in cutting the finer parts, as stamens. The 
modelling tools also require moistening, except on a 
colored surface, when no moisture is required. Hold 
the modelling pin in the right hand with the petal to 
be molded in the palm of the left; allow the stem to 
revolve freely, taking care not to crush through the 
wax. The pressure should be gentle and steady, and 
the wax quite soft. The wax only requires warmth 
and pressure to unite the different parts. Great care 
is necessary to prevent color or moisture coming be¬ 
tween parts to be united, therefore, in painting a petal, 
the end to be united to the seed vessel should be left 
uncolored. Great care should be taken in obtaining a 
thin edge to the petals; this is done by using the head 
of a small modelling pin. Many flowers have a glossy 
texture, which is given by painting the petals, after 
they are formed, with moist coloring, using a sable 
brush, for instance the sepals of the red fuchsia. A 
thin solution of gum water is also used, applied with a 
soft camel hair brush. In some cases use the pow¬ 
dered colors dry and mixed with arrowroot, as the 
white pond lily, allowing one part flake white to two 
parts arrowroot. The pale colors may be rubbed on 
dry with the finger, but the richer ones succeed best 
mixed with ammonia. The following are good direc¬ 
tions for mixing the colors: 
In light blue, use French ultra-marine and flake 
white. Torquoise color, such as forget-me-not, cobalt 
and flake white. Crimson carmine, such as is in 
verbena, roses, &c., carmine deepened with violet, or 
should it be of a scarlet shade, add extract of vermil¬ 
ion. Primrose, use demon yellow. Laburnum color, 
use chrome No. 1. Amber, use chrome No. 2. Pink 
for roses, pink madder deepened by crimson lake or 
carmine. A bright geranium pink, carmine and flake 
white. Pale lilac, flake white, carmine and French 
ultra-marine. A deep purple, carmine and violet 
carmine. Burnt sienna is a useful brown, deepened 
by sepia or paled by chrome No. 1 and 2. Green is 
produced by one of the three chromes and Prussian 
blue. Pale pea green, chrome No. 1. A warmer 
| green, chrome No. 2, and a deep olive green, chrome 
No. 3. The whitish green, in the carnation calyx, is 
formed of chrome No. 1 and Prussian blue, adding a 
rather large portion of flake white. All colors must 
dry on the wax before any decision can be obtained as 
to the correctness of the tint. The moist colors will 
be used for such flowers as geranium, picotees, pas¬ 
sion flower, &c.., the difficulty is their tendency to mix 
with the hotly color, as for instance, the violet carmine 
used to imitate the rich velvety appearance on a pink 
geranium petal. To insure this perfect distinctness, 
no second touch must be given, until the first is per¬ 
fectly dry, and the brush must not be dragged, but if 
possible stippled on. If wished to use moist color on 
the wax, without any body color, breathing on the 
petal will remove the repellant property of the wax. 
These moist colors should always be mixed with 
ammonia and applied with a sable brush, which should 
always be kept clean. In conclusion, let us try to 
faithfully imitate these beautiful creations of our Heav¬ 
enly Father, for in no way can we add to the loveli¬ 
ness of their form and coloring. 
Pequouoc Bridge, Conn. 
M. A. J. 
WAX ORNAMENTS. 
In the September No. Mrs. E. W. Jones wishes to 
know how to make brackets, also designs for wax 
work. A cross or harp is very pretty; may be bought 
or made to order; if not painted it must be covered 
with white paper. Then cover with white sheet wax, 
smoothing the edge or seams, coat with silver white 
and sprinkle with diamond dust. Make a wreath of 
ivy leaves of white silvered wax ; these are lovely 
when twined gracefully on the cross. Frame in a 
deep frame lined with blue velvet; it casts an effective 
shading on white, making it look like marble. Small 
brackets can be made from cigar boxes with the aid of 
a leaf saw and a penknife. A pattern can be had by 
laying a bracket on cardboard and marking it off, 
pieces to be glued together and varnished or left plain 
and draped with velvet or cloth ornamented to suit 
the taste. jp 
STARS. 
A lady asks in the December No. of the Cabinet, 
how to make stars out of paper. I have a paper 
holder trimmed with stars cut out of gold paper, which 
I cut in the following manner, taking my idea from 
a florist’s directions for making a flower bed in the 
shape of a star: 
First draw a circle, then divide the circumference 
into five equal parts with dots, from each dot to the 
second one from it each way, draw straight lines. 
These lines form the star. Cut away the surplus part 
of the circle and the star is made, which can be used 
as a pattern to cut other stars from. The size of the 
star of course depending upon the size of the circle. 
Describing the circle, the size of a spool or thimble 
m ill make a very pretty sized star for ornamenting 
many things. 
