&de ivies' Moral Baforiei hr 3 Suctorial Some ftomjiamon. 
139 
HOUSEHOLD ART. 
Something very beautiful in this line are silk flowers. 
Procure various shades of silk, as nearly the color of 
the natural flowers you wish to imitate as possible, 
and some silver wire, about as fine as horse hair, and 
a very fine knitting needle. 
Coil a piece of the wire by winding it around the 
needle, evenly and closely. Take it out and take hold 
of both ends and draw it out a little to separate the 
coils somewhat. 
Take any flower you wish to imitate and bend the 
wire in the shape of the petals. Take silk the color 
of the flower and wind the end around the wire you 
have left on the petal for a stem. Then put it over 
the centre of the leaf, letting it fall in the coil at the 
end of the leaf, then back to the stem again and over, 
winding first on one side then on the other. When 
the petals are all made, proceed to put the flowers to¬ 
gether, after the pattern furnished by the natural flow¬ 
ers, and wind the stem with silk the color of the natu¬ 
ral stem. Make a spray of leaves as near the shape 
and color of the leaves of the plant that the flower has 
. been taken from as possible, and twine it with the 
flower. Roses and Pansies, Eschseholtzias, and 
Dahlias, are all nice to imitate. 
When it is necessary to har e the color go only half 
way over the petal, work the inner color in with a 
needle. Pansies and many others have to be treated 
in this manner. 
When the flowers are all made they may be formed 
in a wreath and framed, or a bouquet, and put in a 
vase under a bell glass. 
Use saddler’s silk, and split it, using only a strand at 
a time. They are very dainty and beautiful. The 
usual price for teaching this work is six dollars, but 
one can make it just as successfully by following these 
directions as if they had a teacher. 
MAKING HAIR WATCHGUARDS. 
Many a lady desires to present her husband or some 
friend with a keepsake, which shall awake sentiments 
of love and recall her devotion whenever seen. Many 
of us have tresses of the hair of some dear departed 
friend, which we’ would be glad to preserve in some 
nice way, but the great expense of having hair watch- 
guards made, have deterred many from procuring 
them. 
Jdie price of learning the secret of their manufac¬ 
ture has also been very high—$15. But like many 
other things after we once know how, it seems very 
easy ; indeed, only needing a little patience and perse¬ 
verance for its accomplishment. 
The first thing is to construct the apparatus which 
is needed. Procure a smooth circular board, eight or 
ten inches in diameter. Divide this by pencil marks 
into sixteen equal parts. Begin at any one of these 
divisions, and near the edge mark 1, in the next di¬ 
vision 4, then 7—2— 5 —8—3—6—1, and repeat to 6, 
when all the spaces will be filled. Place this board 
on a support which is of less diameter than it is. If 
nothing better presents, a tall can or jar. 
Procure seventeen equal weights; the little screws 
which can be found at any hardware store will do very 
well, and you can pass a coarse thread through them. 
Perhaps a large wooden needle, such as ladies some¬ 
times use for worsted knitting, is as good as anything 
to use for weaving the hair around. Attach one of the 
weights to the end of this needle, after first covering 
the needle with cloth. • 
Then take the hair and hold it tightly in one hand, 
while with the other you draw out a strand the size 
you need for weaving. You can count the hairs in the 
first strand, and guess at the rest. Put twelve in the 
first. 
Tie a knot at each end of each strand, being care¬ 
ful to tie every hair in. Prepare sixteen of these 
strands, and tie the string attached to each weight to 
one of them, one for each. Then sew the other end 
of these strands to the cloth, near the weight, which 
has been attached to the needle, placing the ends to¬ 
wards the end of the needle. 
The circular board must have a hole in the centre, 
and the end of the needle, and the weight must be put 
through that at this stage of the work, and the 
strands of hair, with the weights, are arranged to drop 
over the outside of the board. The weights should 
keep it so that the needle stands erect; perhaps it will 
have to be held, and the place where the strands of 
hair are sewed on, is just at the opening in the board. 
Place the strands so that each one of them will 
come directly over one of the numbers on the board 
and the weights will swing clear of all obstructions. 
The strings attached to the weights should be five or 
six inches long. 
When we have finished these preparations we are 
prepared to begin the chain. Take up the strands at 
each place marked No 1, and carefully raising them 
so the attached weights shall swing clear of all the 
others, exchange the two, dropping each in the oth¬ 
er’s place. Then take those at 2 and exchange in the 
same manner; then at 3 and so on, until you reach 8, 
after which you begin at 1 again. Keep on in this 
way until the hair is all used up; then tie the ends 
carefully while you clip the ends off; remove the 
weight and rip the sewing from the other part of the 
work. 
Braid together three strands of rubber cord or tie 
them together with a thread of silk. Draw these in 
as you remove the needle. 
The work must first be boiled in water for twenty 
minutes and thoroughly dried. 
Fasten the ends of the hair and the elastic cord with 
a drop of wax. It is then ready to send to the jew¬ 
eler’s for the gold settings. 
The pattern in this chain is spiral. Another kind 
has the appearance of links, and is made in the follow¬ 
ing way : 
When the board is divided into sixteen divisions 
mark only every other one, beginning with first, then 
third, then second, then fourth, then first, third, sec¬ 
ond, and fourth. Arrange the strands so that one 
comes at each side of each number. Begin with the 
opposite strands at number one and exchange them ; 
then take those on the other side of the same number, 
then proceed with figure two in the same manner, and 
so on. 
SPATTER WORK. 
Almost all the direction's for making spatter work 
say take a tooth-brush and comb, but a larger brush, 
such as are used for blacking brushes, and a fine seive 
are much better. But very little ink should be put 
on the brush at a time, so the spatters will be smooth 
and uniform. The fern work is much nicer when fine 
ferns, arranged in a tasteful manner, are used than 
large ones. 
A quite large picture cau be made in this way in an 
hour. Common good black ink is as good as anything 
for it. 
A HANDKERCHIEF CASE. 
Take a piece of velvet, black or dark brown or 
navy blue is very pretty, and ornament each corner with 
a pretty little bouquet in silk embroidery. Embroider 
an edge in small scallops; button-hole stitch around 
it. Cut a piece of enameled cloth eleven inches 
square, and a pale blue silk lining of the same size. 
This lining should be quilted with white silk upon 
wadding in some handsome pattern, then laid upon 
the enameled cloth, and the edges bound with blue 
ribbon. 
The embroidered velvet should be just large enough 
so the edge will come beyond this binding. Fasten it 
on with blind stitches. Turn each corner down to the 
middle. Fasten two of them and sew white ribbon on 
the other two to tie them together. White ribbon less 
j than an inch in width may be quilted and sewed 
around the edge instead of the button-hole embroidery. 
This makes a very pretty present for a friend, and is 
nice to hang up> in a room. A loop of ribbon should 
be sewed on one corner for this purpose. 
DIRECTIONS FOR STAMPING. 
Very pretty patterns, already perforated, come for 
using in this way, but if you happen to have a pretty 
pattern which you wish to use, perforate it with a pin, 
following the design. Place the cloth which is to be 
stamped beneath the pattern, and rub a mixture of 
powdered borax, starch, and Prussian blue, well 
mixed, over the pattern. It will penetrate the per¬ 
forations and produce the pattern upon the cloth. The 
pattern must be carefully removed, and the cloth 
pressed with a hot iron. If the stamping seems to be 
wearing off at any time, iron it again and it will set it. 
This process has been kept secret, or sold at a great 
price, and probably has never been publicly pub¬ 
lished. 
A beautiful table or piano spread may be made of 
the fashionable brown velvet embroidered with silk oi 
a contrasting color or colors. A wreath of leaves, in 
shaded green and autumn colors, is about as lovely as 
anything. A large group or wreath in the centre, and 
a spray in each corner are required. Two wreaths 
united and each containing an initial of the owner’s 
name, is very handsome. 
The work can be done quite expeditiously, and they 
are so beautiful that it is very satisfactory to make 
them, and it is an excellent way of displaying one’s 
artistic skill. 
WHAT-NOTS. 
Very beautiful what-nots may be made, with hang¬ 
ing shelves and embroidered lambrequins. The 
shelves can be ordered of'any carpenter, and are sim¬ 
ply plain black walnut cut in the right shape and 
highly varnished. 
The lambrequins may be made on a velvet founda¬ 
tion, or filled in on canvas. Beads in different colors 
make the handsomest embroidery. 
A pattern should be chosen, such as can be obtained 
at any fancy store, and the work done after it. When 
beads of the right colors cannot be got, zephyr may 
be used with very good effect, and the two are often 
combined in the same work. The lower edge of the 
lambrequin should be cut iu large scollops, say three 
or five, and a twisted fringe of heads put around it. 
Perhaps black beads are the most suitable for this part 
of the work. When the embroidery is finished the 
upper part of the lambrequin must be tacked to the 
board shelf, and a band heavily embroidered with beads 
put on the edge to cover it. 
