THE WORK CORNER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 36, 12 September 1891, Page 375

THE WORK CORNER.

ORIGINAL FANCY WORK.

(BY

MRS CONYERS MORRELL.)

A DRAPED EASEL. n-agyu T has of recent years become a pretty generally I recognised fact that a very useful adjunct to ygSl icju? interior decoration may be found in an easel, [V'i*” which placed in one of the corners or angles ■tZgj’ °f a sitting-room not only affords support to some choice painting or sketch and thus extends the, perhaps, limited available wall space, but in a very satisfactory manner breaks up the uncompromising squareen of too many of our modern dwellingrooms. While wood easels are procurable now at such an absurdly small cost, that the purchase of one is well within the reach, of the most economically-minded housewife intent upon embellishment, and now that we have Aspinall’s invaluable enamels at our disposal, the decoration of the woodwork of one of these easels can be accomplished in any colour most in accordance with the leading features of the room in which it is to be placed ; or if, perhaps a more sober scheme of ornamentation should be desired, Abbot’s Pyrographic Platinum Point may be called into requisition, and some effective and harmonions pattern be burnt on the wood, in which case but very slight, if any addenda in the way of drapery should be resorted to. . When, however, drapery is wished for, and harmonises with the position of the easel, an extremely pretty and artistic effect may be achieved by the very simple ornamentation sketched upon this page, which consists simply of a long silk scarf loosely thrown over the easel, one end being brought down the side and carried over the pegs supporting the picture. As a matter of fact, this sketch is taken from a corner of my own draw-ing-room, and was in the first instance simply the outcome of a desire to conceal the frame-work of a time-honoured easel, which, for the sake of ‘ Auld Lang Syne,’ it was considered best to leave in its normal condition, the lower part being entirely concealed behind an old-fashioned, rather high-backed couch, which is placed across the corner of the room in which the easel stands. Just now, spring cleaning having necessitated a rearrangment of the silk scarf, the end no longer crosses over the two pegs, as shown in the illustration, but is slightly drawn over the side of the frame, and falls down over the first peg, whilst on the second one has been placed, and so falls down over the stand, a palette brought some time ago from Paris, which bears upon its face a happy smudge of harmonious colour, and a tiny sketch from the gifted brush of some unknown French artist, and the latter arrangment I can recommend as being really an improvement on the original draping. Upon this easel stands a. lovely sketch, in water-colour, the frame in which it is placed being a broad* band of rough wood plainly gilt, a method of framing which is at once economical and extremely decorative. Crushed down in one of the upper corners and not erect, as it has rather unfortunately been depicted in order to render the copying of the shape more easy to my readers, is placed a most beautiful and attractive sunflower of Brobdignagian proportions, the possession of which I owe to my amiable French correspondent 1 Crevette,’ who most kindly sent it over to me as an example of the large paper flowers being sold in Paris for the decoration of lamp shades. Not being myself able to utilise it for its legitimate purpose, a happy thought led me to place it on the easel, the scarf of which, I must not iorget to name, is of yellow silk, and therefore lends itself well to the tones of yellow tissue paper of which the sunflower is composod. At least three shades of paper are required for the formation .of the .paper flowers, whicn are composed of a series of circles, subdivided into long, narrow petals, crinkled by passing through the fingers, the low one being cut from the lightest paper, and measuring from the outer extremity of each petal about inches

across. Eleven or twelve rows of petals form the flower, and the centre is composed of a strip of black tissue paper, doubled down and cut into narrow strips, similarly to those prepared for cake borders, the petals and centre being all fastened together by a few little black headed steel pins. Most of my readers are no doubt acquainted with the simple process of crinkling the paper, and will find no difficulty in manufacturing one of the sunflowers. A very pretty rose, constructed on the same principle, accompanied the sunflower when it reached me, the colouring of which would, no doubt, suit some rooms, though scarcely suitable for the use to which I have turned its companion, unless, perhaps, some black and white drawing, or pen and-ink sketches were resting upon the easel, in which case, possibly, a creamy white scarf would assimilate well with the delicate hues of the rose petals, such an easel being, however, only appropriate to some very Dresden china-like fittings.— Ladies' Pictorial.