HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 1912 
purely decorative design is to be preferred 
to a naturalistic one. It is easiest to begin 
by drilling a small hole with an augur bit; 
then to insert the saw and saw out the pat¬ 
tern. Experimenting in the use of the 
saw with cheap wood as material should 
be a preliminary exercise. When the pat¬ 
tern is cut out the glue is softened and 
the pieces of wood separated. The prob¬ 
lem now is the easy one of fitting the 
ebony pattern into the mahogany tray 
piece and vice versa, making two trays. A 
little glue fastens the pieces into their 
proper places. The edges are sawed into 
triangular shape. The inlay must then be 
backed with some wood that will not 
warp, though it need not necessarily be 
expensive. Maple is a suitable wood. The 
piece for backing is made larger than the 
veneer, and is glued to it. The pieces must 
be dried carefully, with equal pressure. If 
the amateur has not access to a press or 
a cabinetmaker’s bench, a bookbinder or 
cabinetmaker must be engaged to carry 
out the drying and pressing processes. 
The moulding is next sawed out and fas¬ 
tened to the edge of the veneer on top of 
the backing. Screws put in from beneath 
serve to hold it to the backing. If desired 
the rim may be made flat without a mould¬ 
ing. 
The finishing process is next and last in 
order, and on it depends much of the 
beauty of the trays. They are first sanded 
thoroughly and evenly with fine sand¬ 
paper. Then a coat of shellac is applied. 
They are then allowed to dry for twenty- 
four hours, when the sanding is repeated. 
Sanding and shellacing are repeated in this 
way three or four times. Then the wood 
is oiled, rubbed with a piece of dry cheese¬ 
cloth, and the trays are completed. 
Small tables can easily be furnished 
with inlaid tops by the amateur workman, 
the veneer top being placed above the 
table top that is already in place. An ordi¬ 
Very few tools and no special training are 
necessary to do inlay work, and the results 
are most pleasing 
nary little table, of oak or mahogany, can 
in this way be given a distinctive quality. 
Chessboards are other inlaid articles eas¬ 
ily made by an amateur. 
It is by no means impossible for the 
novice to introduce bits of mother-of-pearl, 
copper, or pewter into a piece of inlay, 
giving a rich and interesting color effect. 
In using metal, the veneer must be rubbed 
down until it is the thickness of the metal. 
A hole of about the size of the piece of 
metal is sawed in the wood. The bit of 
metal is then tried beneath the hole, which 
is sawed out gradually to the required 
size and shape. Inexpensive woods can 
be stained in different colors if a particu¬ 
lar scheme is required, and many of the 
cheaper woods, such as whitewood, can 
be used in their natural color in small 
pieces. Charming little decorative land¬ 
scapes can be worked out in inlay, and 
used to decorate chairbacks, desks and 
settles that are bought in unfinished woods 
and stained by the amateur craftsman. 
The use of inlay in this way, however, 
should be restrained. A touch of color, 
an interesting spot of wood or metal, gives 
distinction, but there is risk of over¬ 
ornamentation, in this as in other deco¬ 
rative arts. 
Wistaria Stools and Some Old 
Coppers 
HESE wistaria stools may serve a 
number of purposes. Primarily 
they are made for jardiniere stands, but 
they are most useful for porch or garden 
seats. The bottom support being a heavy 
rim, they do not sink into the ground as 
a chair, with its slender legs, does. Then, 
too, these stools are, if anything, improved 
by rain—quite an unusual distinction for 
anything in the furniture line. The damp¬ 
ness tightens and toughens the fibres of 
the wistaria so they are only improved by 
the accident of a wetting. They are of 
small size, the base about fourteen inches 
in diameter, the top tw'elve inches, and they 
stand about fifteen inches high and cost a 
dollar and a half apiece. 
The jardinieres, shown in the same illus¬ 
tration, are rather out of the ordinary. The 
emigrants from Russia and Italy come to 
America with their household equipment, 
and finding the modern utensils used by 
Americans more to their liking, adppt 
them, discarding their time honored tra¬ 
ditions and their old cooking vessels at 
the same time. Often they are en¬ 
tirely black with the smoke and use of 
many years, but if persistently polished 
(it will be better to take them to some 
factory equipped with burnishing wheels 
and brushes than to use one’s own elbow 
grease upon them) they will become br ight 
and shining. Most of these cooking ves¬ 
sels are of excellent proportions. They 
may be purchased for four or five dollars, 
according to the size and the rarity and 
desirability of the shape. 
bmall wistaria fibre stools are obtainable for a variety of uses. They are very durable and are even improved somewhat by hard usage 
