HOUSE AND GARDEN 
December, 1910 
35i 
special qualifications, and 
he has evolved the charm¬ 
ing creations which can 
be only inadequately 
shown in the pictures 
herewith. 
These shades, while 
unique in idea, are capa¬ 
ble of many individual 
variations and furnish 
valuable suggestions for 
the practical craftsman. 
The shade is made of 
water - color paper — the 
heavier grades being best 
for the purpose—and is 
backed with thinnest Chi¬ 
nese silk and edged with 
galloon of gilt or silver. 
The designs are usually 
Renaissance in character, 
and consist of festoons of 
fruit or flowers, or other 
arrangements of some 
elaboration. Conventional 
and other simple designs 
might be used, but of 
whatever style they must admit 
of the cutting of some parts of 
the design to let the light through. 
In the shades made for Mr. Her- 
ter’s studio, the festoon is the 
favorite motif. The main part of 
the design is cut out, after the 
manner of a stencil, but leaves 
and other subordinate elements 
are often drawn in lightly with 
the brush in the flat-toned Jap¬ 
anese style. 
The process of making the 
shade is simple, but it must be 
done with care and precision to 
have the result satisfactory. The 
paper is first fastened to a board 
and given the desired tone with 
water color. As a general rule all 
the light shades of a room should 
be kept in the same colors and as 
far as possible in the same design. 
Delightful tones that are warm 
and vibratory without being ob¬ 
trusive in the daytime, and mys¬ 
teriously glowing when alight, can 
be secured by superimposed 
washes of two or three different 
colors. Only experiement can 
determine exactly the shades to 
be used, but in general, cool tones 
should be put over the warmer 
ones. 
When the paper is quite dry, 
which will mean after several 
hours, the design should be drawn 
on lightly and then cut with a 
sharp stencil knife, or any sharp 
pointed knife. The leaves or 
other parts are next painted in, 
In addition to the brush-work and the 
cutting out of spots, the shade is 
lined with light yellow silk 
A fiat shield, made in the same 
will serve admirably to light 
feature of wall decoration 
way, 
some 
bracket. The shade is designed to throw the light just 
where it is wanted on the peacock’s tail 
and then the whole is 
turned wrong side up and 
the silk pasted on. This 
must be done with great 
care, that there be no 
wrinkles and that no 
atom of paste touches the 
exposed spots of the silk. 
Only library paste of the 
best quality and freshness 
should be used. The silk 
must be chosen for its 
color value when lighted 
as well as its unlighted 
tone. A soft yellow has 
been found one of the 
most useful colors. When 
lighted it has the soft 
glow of sunlight, and un¬ 
lighted it relieves the 
quiet grays, greens and 
neutral tints of the toned 
paper. 
Occasionally the silk 
is touched up for spots 
of high light or of sha¬ 
dow that seem needed to 
bring the whole into proper rela¬ 
tion. When this is done the wa¬ 
ter color should be mixed with a 
little Chinese white. 
After the silk is pasted on, the 
whole should be pressed under a 
heavy weight until thoroughly 
dry. It is better to be on the safe 
side and leave it for at least 
twenty-four hours. It is then 
ready to be fitted to the ordinary 
wire frame which may be bought 
at any lamp store, or if one has 
original ideas, and wants some un¬ 
usual shape, to the frame which 
one has had made from his own 
sketch. The choice of shape is 
of the most importance, not only 
from the point of view of design 
— the shape being of course 
chosen before the design is made 
—but also with consideration for 
the diffusion or concentration of 
light. The more spreading the 
shade the more diffused the light. 
The shade may be made in one 
piece or in several sections, in 
which case all joinings must be 
covered as described later on. 
Candle shades for use on the din¬ 
ing-table should generally throw 
the light down, and the openings 
should be comparatively small and 
evenly distributed, in order that 
the design be not too insistent, 
since the candle shade is always 
directly in the line of vision. The 
larger lamp shades, on the other 
hand, may be of more varied 
(Continued on t>aae t8oj 
