# Embroidery and Fancy Work/Leather Work and Papier Maché

LEATHER WORK
AND
PAPIER MACHE.
The heading of this chapter will, to most readers, I fancy, bring to mind the leather work so fashionable some years ago, which consisted in cutting out leaves, flowers, etc., from sheet leather, and, after veining and moulding them into graceful and natural positions, glueing them on to a foundation. This work was sometimes left the natural color of the leather, but more often was stained almost black. Some of the work done was very beautiful, but it soon went out of favor, and little of it is now seen. The art of making it is very simple, hardly requiring directions. The leaves (which were the most desirable objects to be copied) are cut out, and while damp, veined with a bodkin or a tooling wheel (a tracing wheel without the sharp points), bent into shape and mounted on stems. These stems, as in wax flowers, are made of fine wire, covered, however, with thin leather instead of silk. Tendrils are made of narrow strips of leather, well dampened in salt or alum water, and rolled about a round stick to dry. The leaves are stretched over any suitable curved surface, such as the bowl of a spoon, a ball, etc., to give the desired shape. Sometimes moulding with the fingers is all that ​is necessary. Much of the success of this kind of work must depend on the skill and ingenuity of the worker.
But there is another much more satisfactory kind of work to be done in leather. It is an ancient art revived. Like repoussée work it owes this recognition to Mr. Leland, so far at least as amateurs are concerned.
In the Art Union for 1847, a long and interesting account is given of what is called a patent process of working in relievo leather practised by Messrs. F. Leake & Co., of London, and several of the illustrations here given are copies of work done by that firm. To quote from the article in question:
"It will scarcely be believed that leather thus prepared is a material sufficiently tractable to assume all the sharpness and nicety of touch which distinguish these works; but in the flowers, fruits, and animals—figures which are executed in profusion, there is discoverable, with the liberal and mellow breadth to which we have alluded, a sharpness and fineness of outline all sufficient for the closest imitation of nature; and it might be supposed, from the tenacious quality of the material, that the assumption of delicate form might only be temporary—that the necessary tension might yield to time, to damp, or to some of the numerous fortuities to which furniture and interior ornament are exposed, but there is no reason to apprehend changes of this kind, since it is found to maintain incorruptibly every form confided to it, and with age, to acquire a superior quality of durability.
Fig. 30 is the cover for a book, designed by Owen Jones, and to any one who has learned to carve in intaglio will not prove difficult of execution. Of course, another title could be substituted for the "Gray's Elegy," or the center might be filled with an "all over" design, the whole work being used as a panel, or, the border alone being used, a remarkably beautiful frame would be ​the result; all the illustrations can be used also for wood carving or brass work.
Fig. 30.
The material necessary for undertaking this work is not ​necessarily expensive. For coarse work you can use scraps of leather which can be obtained at a low price from a book bindery; scrape or rasp these to powder, and mix thoroughly with paper and dextrine paste or patent knotting. Roll perfectly smooth with a wooden ruler. Draw or transfer a design to it, and depress the background as in repoussée work. Or you may have the design either cut in intaglio in wood,or in the shape of a plaster mould well hardened with gum arabic and alum. Press your soft leather into this, hammering it gently into every part of the mould.
The leather is softened by being soaked in a pot or pan of alum water, made in the proportion of a table spoonful of alum to a pint of water. Salt may be substituted for the alum. Soak the leather from ten minutes to ten hours, as you find desirable. Experience will teach you when it is in the right condition. The water may be either hot or cold; in this, also, "judgment" being the only guide."
Another easy way of ornamenting it is to cut a pattern with the fret saw from sheet-iron, brass, or zinc, and press it into the soft leather. It can be dyed a good black, and when thoroughly dry will be extremely hard and almost unbreakable.
For finer work, sheets of basil or skiver are used, either alone or in connection with papier maché or leather scraps.
A plate or a small wooden bowl may be used as a foundation. Lay on it a piece of soft, damp paper to prevent the subsequent work from sticking to the plate. Then cut from fifteen to twenty pieces exactly fitting the plate, from soft newspaper, and with dextrine or even with good flour paste, paste them together, keeping them as smooth as possible.
Have ready some sand tied up in a piece of stout cloth, and use it as a mallet to make the layers lie ​perfectly even. Strike gently over the surface until the paper plate is perfectly smooth and even. Instead of the paper you can use leather scraps, soaking them from ten to fifteen minutes in hot alum water, and then fitting them together so as to form a smooth surface, using the sand bag to secure an equal thickness throughout. As you become used to handling this pasted paper or leather, you will find you can mould it like wax in your hands, and, with practice can model from it any desired object. When you have attained some degree of skill in handling it, you can model your ornamentation as you would in clay. Few tools are needed for this work. A few gouges, both flat and half round, a pen-knife, pair of scissors, compasses, and a couple of pattern or tracing wheels, one with and one without sharp points are all that need be bought. A wooden knife with a point is needed for various purposes, such as scraping, working the leather into corners, etc. Wooden gouges and chisels can be whittled out as you find need for them. One or two grounding tools like those used inirepoussée work will be found useful.
Having your papier maché or leather "core" ready you can ornament it by means of designs cut out of thick card-board, or out of a sheet of papier mache of the proper thickness, Thus you can arrange a wreath of ivy leaves, or cut Gothic letters to form a motto round the edge.
Rosette designs can be formed by using wooden button moulds, or you can make rosettes of papier maché or card-board, and arrange them round the edge of the plate or bowl, glueing or pasting them into position. Then take a piece of thin skiver which has lain in hot water for two or three minutes and lay it on the core. It should be an inch or two larger in diameter than the plate. With fingers and tools stretch it carefully over the inside of the core, working it into every ​corner and depression. To do this successfully, you must begin at the centre and work outwards in all sides When finished, the leather should look as if the ornaments had been originally moulded from it. Draw the leather over the edges and paste it down on the wrong side. Cover the under side with a piece of skiver, glueing it neatly on. The ground between the ornaments can be indented with a cross hatched punch if desired. Should your leather become dry, moisten it with a sponge.
To make a round box, the core should be made round a wooden cylinder, the ornamentation being either modelled by hand, or else cut out and glued on as described for the plate above. The bottom of the box can either be moulded on the cylinder, thus making the box in one piece, or can be cut out and glued on afterwards. Slip the core off the cylinder and cover with damp skiver as directed. Form the cover in the same way. A piece of thick card-board projecting above the box should be fitted into it to hold the cover on.
Tankards can be made in the same way over cylindrical cones of wood. Handles can be fitted on if desired, made of leather waste and rolled. If the glue used in making the core have bi-chromate of potash mixed with it, the papier maché will be water-proof. If instead of a papier maché core solid boiled leather be used, the tankards will be serviceable for holding liquids.
Quivers, shot flasks, and horns are all suitable subjects for leather work, and varied designs can be found in many books of antiquities. Bonbonnières of all sorts can be manufactured from papier mache and then painted, varnished or inlaid. China figures can be bought at the toy stores on which these can be moulded. When necessary, the papier maché can be cut apart, and afterwards sewn or glued together. A little study of some of the bonbonnières now furnished will enable any ​one to carry out this idea. When leather work is backed with a mixture of glue and naptha, it becomes as hard as horn, and almost unbreakable. If the design is worked in very high relief the back should be filled up with sawdust and glue, cement, or with plaster of Paris mixed with gum arabic.
Very good effects are produced by heating the brass stamps already alluded to, and pressing them into the leather. Gilding may also be applied to leather with very good effect. To stain it black, use good ink or ebony stain.
PAPIER MACHÉ.
Some idea of the capabilities of papier maché can be formed from the following extract from a late paper. The speaker is a "property man" at one of the New York theatres.
"Urns, vases, bronzes, carved mantlepieces, helmets, shields, and similar "props" are all made from old paper. Yea, even a Grecian urn, on which Keats might write an ode, can be built out of paper, which may once have enclosed the unpoetic but soul-searching ham; I can give you a description of the method of making an urn, and that will serve as an earnest of all the rest." The process of making a plaster mould for an urn having been described, the property man goes on to say:—
"Now we are ready for the paper. It must be heavy and free from glazing. Ruthlessly tear this paper into small pieces, and soak it well in clean water. While the paper is in the water, you proceed to grease the mould well with sweet oil or lard. If this is not properly done it results in dire disaster at a later stage of the work. Now lay on a coat of wet paper. Be careful to fill up all the works and crannies of the mould. Put on four more coats of paper. Then put on a layer of muslin and ​glue. Now put on three more coats of paper. Now it must be left to dry for twelve hours. When it is so dry you couldn't squeeze a tear out with a hydraulic ram, draw out the inner coats of paper, leaving the muslin and three outside coats. I ought to have told you that only one-half of the urn is made in this way at a time. When both halves are ready, trim down the edges carefully and sew them together with stout twine. Cover the seam with a thin coat of paper, and then you are ready for the painting. First give it a coat of whitening. Then sandpaper it well. Now you may apply the final color. You can get up a handsome blue and gold vase by the use of blue paint and gold leaf. Bronze is imitated very closely by a coat of bronze powder, which you can get at any paint store."
Impressions can be taken of inscriptions, old brasses, etc., by first oiling them, and then pressing wet paper thoroughly into every indentation. Such impressions are called "squeezes," and are used to obtain fac similes of inscriptions. By diligent use of the sand bag, papier maché can be rendered very hard. The extreme lightness of objects made from it is a great advantage.
Members of amateurs' theatrical clubs might find it advantageous to practice this art somewhat, as it might sometimes aid them in making needful properties.
Helmets, shields, swords, etc., could be fashioned with comparatively little difficulty.
Papier maché is extensively manufactured in Birmingham, England. At one time it was largely employed in the interior decoration of houses in place of stucco.
Many fine buildings are thus adorned.
In Birmingham, articles made of this material are coated with successive layers of asphalt varnish, which being dried by oven heat leaves a surface capable of receiving a high polish. Mother of pearl is much used in their decoration, for which purpose, when several ​layers of the varnish still remain to be applied, thin flakes of the shell are placed on the varnish in the required design, and are covered by the succeeding layers, giving rise to slight elevations when they are hidden by the coats of varnish The surface is then ground down smooth with sand paper and polished, and the grinding down brings to light the pieces of mother of pearl shell, which thus present the appearance of inlaid patterns. The fine surface which can be given to the asphalt varnish, also permits of burnished gilding and other decoration applications with excellent effect.
Papier maché may also be used for relief ornamentation for friezes, etc. The surface to be docorated should first be hacked with a knife, and then kalsomined, sawdust being added to the kalsomine, so as to give a rough surface on which the papier maché ornaments are fastened by means of strong glue. The papier maché should have gum arabic and a little glycerine added to it. The latter prevents the composition from drying too rapidly. Wild roses, passion flowers, etc., can be advantageously used for such decorations, which should be painted over with different colored bronzes.
It should be remembered that both in leather work and papier maché, it is desirable to model rather than stamp or mould. The material when properly treated is quite as plastic as clay, and will well repay the efforts made in learning to manage it properly.
Fig. 31 shows a chair bolster covered with dark brown morocco which is ornamented in a peculiar way called "racing." The rosettes, loops, and tassels at the ends are also made of the same material, the first catching together the leather covering which is here gathered and drawn in close; from four to five inches are to be allowed in length beyond the measure. To make the raced design (which can be drawn on the leather with a colored pencil, or else transferred) the outlines must first ​be carefully pierced out with a sharp penknife; before taking away the raced upper part of the leather, which can be removed either from the design proper, or from
Fig. 31.
the ground, the leather must be thoroughly soaked in water at the back, so that the outer part of the skin may draw off easily and the leather be smooth beneath, and the cut design clearly visible.
​Fig. 32 is a sofa cushion decorated in the same way, the working detail being given in Fig. 33. In the model, the leather cover is fastened down by small loops going over pompons (or woolen balls made after
Fig. 32.
directions on page "in chapter on crochet") above a plush strip set on to the edge of the cushion; larger pompons finish the corners. Brown leather, with brown or fawn colored plush, with ​pompons, either corresponding or of two shades, would be pretty colors.
Fig. 33.
Fig. 34 is a book cover to be made in heavy leather worked in relief as directed above.
TO PAINT LEATHER.
Select leather that has been thoroughly well dressed, draw upon it with a chalk pencil the subject to be painted, and size all over the design. Use the common size bought at an ordinary oil and color shop, melted over the fire and used warm. Paint with ordinary tube
Fig. 34.
HOW TO ORNAMENT HORNS.
It is not generally known that common ox horns can be so worked and decorated as to make both useful and ornamental objects. The modern spelling of lantern is rather unfortunate, inasmuch as it loses sight of the origin of that extremely useful article, the lanthorn of King Alfred's invention, in which thin plates of translucent horn were used to guard that monarch's candle clocks from the wind.
Drinking horns in earlier days were often decorated profusely, and many fine specimens still exist. In the earlier part of the century, horns were constantly used as powder flasks, and much care was often bestowed on giving them a fine polish, in itself a great ornament, for ​ox horns show, when polished, beautiful gradations of color.
As far down as the time of George II, but dating back to the time when printing was -an unknown art, "horn books" were in use in England in the place of the many primers and other elementary books which now flood the country. These consisted of a single leaf, containing on one side the alphabet, large and small, in black letter or in Roman, with perhaps a small regiment of mono-syllables. Then followed a form of exorcism and the Lord's Prayer, and as a finale, the Roman numerals. The leaf was usually set in a wooden frame, with a slice of transparent horn in front—hence the name of horn book. There was a handle to hold it by, and usually this handle had a hole for a string, whereby the apparatus was fastened to the girdle. Sometimes the leaf was simply pasted to a slice of horn. These horn books are extremely rare now. Sheustone alludes to them in his poem, "The Schoolmistress." When alluding to the children he says:—
"Their books of stature small, they take in hand, Which with pellucid horn secured are, To save from fingers wet the letters fair."
Horns can be easily softened in hot water, and, so softened, can be flattened, or otherwise moulded. But the natural form is so graceful that one would hardly wish to alter it, unless it be to present a little more convenient surface for decoration. If the horns are procured at a slaughter house, they will need cleaning the first thing. This is done by soaking them in water, when the pith can easily be separated from the outside. Cups or tankards can be made of them by cutting off a section of the proper length. In order to render the horn soft enough to cut, it must be soaked in boiling water. While still ​soft, a groove can be cut on the inside about a quarter or half an inch from the bottom. Into this fit a circular piece of metal or horn. A little ingenuity will enable one to fit on brass mountings at top and bottom. These mountings can be rendered still further ornamental by either chasing or repoussée work. In their original shape or slightly flattened horns, can be ornamented in various ways, and utilized for holding flowers, grasses, or made into bonbonnières, or simply hang up as ornaments. To polish them, they should be rubbed with fine sand and emery paper, then with whiting, and finished off with a little sweet oil on a piece of chamois, or with a little sub-nitrate of bismuth, rubbed in with the hand.
The horns, thus polished, can be either etched on, which is done by coating them with wax, scratching out the design, and then pouring acid and water over the whole or they can have designs painted on them in oil colors, or they can be decorated with ink or stain of no appropriate color. In the latter case, the design should be cut lightly in the horn with a very small V tool, and the groove thus made filled with ink or stain by means of a camel's hair brush.
​Horn can be stained to imitate tortoise shell as follows:—
Mix an equal quantity of quicklime and red lead, with strong soap suds or a solution of potash. Be very careful in using this mixture as it will burn your hands or clothes. Lay it on with a small brush, imitating the mottling of real tortoise shell. Give the horn several coats of this, letting it dry between each application. Then lay it for a few hours in vinegar and alum, wash it in clear water and polish. I have not tried it, but I fancy this horn so treated might be used for inlay work on papier maché in the same way that was described for mother of pearl. In connection with a tasteful use of gilding, very handsome articles could be made in this way.