Table Decoration

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 811, 4 November 1929, Page 4

Table Decoration

MANY QUAINT AND ORIGINAL NOVELTIES MAKE CENTRE-PIECES FOR THE MODERN TABLE

GLASS AND CHINA There is nothing original in just putting a few flowers in a vase and setting it in the centre of your table, but it is possible with just the same materials to get a really striking 3 effect. Never has such lovely glass and china been available as now—the shapes of the vases, the colour of the glass and china really help one to get 1 a most decorative effect at small cost. Some of the modernist vases have . quaint angles and curves that are very attractive. 1 The newer vases are so lovely that , they are an economy in themselves. For example, a tall, cut crystal, cylin- . drical vase, with its gleaming facets ' and elegant form, really only needs c two, or, at most, three biggish blossoms to produce just the right effect. Such a vase crammed with flowers i looks quite wrong and seems to produce a confusion that hides the beauty of both flowers and container. LALIQUE GLASS \ Simply exquisite are the figures of dancing girls, and other centre-pieces made from that lovely lalique glass 1 which looks as though it had been made with milk! Of course, Lalique is a matter of pounds, but even so it i is worth saving up to buy a small rose ' bowl, or one of the quaintly-shaped vases with graceful figures carved, 1 Greek fashion, in the glass. j For table decoration purposes the beauty of this very fashionable glass-Ts s sufficient unto itself —flowers are not necessary, as they are with less ' artistic but cheaper vases, to complete the picture. The floating swan idea is another that makes for economy in flowers. Just a few short-stalked sprays, or even a few rose petails may float on the water, in the centre of which the glass swan glides gracefully. A very original touch is given to the , table by placing not only the vase of flowers, but also some fanciful idea expressed in glass or china beside it. For example, there are available wonderfully realistic animals made in china—polar bears in snowy china, leopards and lions crouched ready to spring, and also wonderful modejs of dogs, rabbits or horses. One of these placed beside the flowers strikes a note of novelty and gives vivacity to the decorative scheme. A NOVEL NOTE Very dainty and pretty are the tiny little humming-birds fashioned from either glass or fishbones and scales Birds of paradise and peacocks with spreading tails are made of glass, spun glass being used for their plumage. The day, has gone when we thought it necessary to clutter up our rooms with so-called ornaments, ranged in rows on the mantelpiece or on shelves. These discarded ornaments today find a new usefulness. China figures and statuettes especially are being brought down from the lumber room, dusted and washed, and given a new lease of life as part of the decorative scheme of the dinner table. For example, the figure of a dancing nymph, a Chinese Buddha, a Japanese geisha, or a Dresden shepherdess can be placed on your table beside a vase of flow’ers, and it is wonderful how such an alliance at once makes your table look unusually attractive. If you happen to possess a suitable glass or china figure you pre lucky but failing this you can buy one that is suitable for a few shillings, or a few pounds for something thrillingly artistic if you can spare them. AN EFFECTIVE DECORATION NOVEL BINDING Such a quick and effective decoration for coloured household linen such as linen table mats and children's’ tub frocks, can be made from white piping cord, laid on the stuff in loops or following the lines of a transfer border. Use the finest piping cord obtainable, and couch it down to tone with the material. A set of blue casement cloth or linen table-mats trimmed w-ith alternate small and large cord loops would be chartning. Pencil round plates for the various sized mats, binding the edge with blue bias tape. Draw a circle inside with a small plate, and along this couch the cord, twisting it into loops as you go. As piping cord sometimes shrinks when laundered it should be shrunk first by boiling bematerials? C ° HChed °“ l ° Washabl *