WORK COLUMN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XVIII, 1 May 1897, Page 558

WORK COLUMN.

OUR WINDOWS. IT is really terrible to think how many people lose their lives yearly by cleaning windows, I believe last year they came to something over a hundred, and people should readily welcome the invention of a • safe guard.' which has lately made its appearance in our midst. It consists of a kind of portable balustrade of iron, made to nt any window, to which it is secured by two iron bars, thus rendering falling from the window sill an impossibility. These guards are made of two heights, one suitable for using when sitting to clean the window, and the other, which is much higher, to protect the cleaner when standing. There is also another arrangement which obviate the necessity for standing outside the windows at all, as both the top and bottom sashes are, by a skilful arrangement of bolts and hinges, capable of being brought right into the room for painting or cleaning After all, nothing plays so important a role in home life as curtains, but many find it difficult to devise new and artistic ideas. As a general rule, more depends upon the effect of graceful draping than upon the actual material itself. Cords, sashes, ribbons, are quite ostracised and out of date for looping back curtains. The latest idea is to employ butterflies, or sunflowers, or iris blossoms to festoon the muslin or lace at your windows.

These novel ‘tie-ups' are made of silk and velvet: a butterfly has yellow wings and a green velvet bodv maybe, or is more fanciful with blue wings and a brown body according to the colour of the room. A pair of nippers, like those attached to candle-brackets, serve to fix the butterflies, etc., to the curtains. A very pretty mode of looping a pair of curtains with the aid of a pair of butterflies is shown in mv sketch.