Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-07-30

1-ACE.--1IiCc uidl DS largely ueSu lUi VIC
decoration of household furniture. 1t is
employed great deal for trimming cur
tains, table-covers and valances, besides
covers, screens and music stools for the
last an easy method is to arrange it in
squares alternating with squares of col
ored satin, managing the circle by the ad-
dition of three cornered pieces, and COM
pleting the cover by wide lace founce.
FIREPLAeEs. Boards, made to fit tightly
into the fireplace for summer use when no
fire is required, are now in vogue for
painting on. Sometimes the background
is light-colored, but more frequently black
or gold. A design of long rushes, grasses
springing up the sides, with butterflies
above and tangled briers and flowers be-
low, or landscape in the center, sur
rounded by wreath of flowers, are suit
able subjects.
EMBROIDERY Avoid using an iron to
embroidery. 1t fiattens the work and is
apt to injure the color. For embroidery
on linen, unless very badly done, it will
be found quite sufficient to stretch the
work as tightly as possible with white
tacks or drawing pins on clean board,
and damp it evenly with sponge. Leave
it until quite dry, and then unfasten it,
and, if necessary, comb out the fringe.
If it is new work, it should not be fringed
until after it has been stretched.
A Cover. following is sugges-
ton for pianoforte cover: The founda.
ton drab cloth, bordered with damask ivy
leaves sewn on with split wool shade
darker than the cloth; a wreath of the
same in the center, inclosing an embroi-
dered monogram, and bunch at each cor
ner. If such leaves cannot be found in
silk damask, they may be cut in dark
green cloth, treated in the same way, and
veined with long stitches of wool darker
than the leaves.
APPIIQUE.-A new form of applique
is flowers cut cut in paper, and covered
with silk of the right shade, and then
sewn on to cloth, satin, or sometimes
japanese or Panama canvas. It admits of
infinite variety, but requires great neat.
ness and an artistic eye. 1t is applied to
table borders, tea cosies, curtain borders,
and many other uses. Care must be taken
to cut the paper with the utmost exact
ness, and to cover it with the silk SO per-
fectly that the form is preserved. In sew
ing it on to the foundation, the necessary
veinings, petals, stamens, ETC., are formed.
PHOTOGRAPHS. Photographs are more
frequently now seen in frames, or put
about room, than in albums. They are to
be seen on mantel- shelves, often unframed,
among the ornaments, or resting against
the glass or wall /; and sometimes a small
table, originally intended for the display
OF china. with glass top, is devoted to
them. They are arranged SO as to show off
TO the best advantage. and are looked at
from above through the glass. When the
mantel-shelf is wide, small folding screens,
half opened, are sometimes to be seen put
behind the ornament, covered with photo
graphs. Some are of card board, covered
with gold paper and bound with colored
ribbon; others are Of wood.
EBoNIzING. Inquiries are frequent for
the RECORD. UNION TO describe the ebon-
izing process. We refer our readers to our
issue of April 30th, and the WEEKLY Union
for the week following, for complete de-
tails for making imitation ebony surfaces.
The ATt amateur for July contains brief
receipt on the same subject, which we APP
pend First, wet your work all over with
a solution of logwood and copperas tsul-
phate of iron), boiled together and laid on
hot. Use few cents worth of logwood,
and half as many cents worth of copperas,
to the quart of water. When dry, wet all
over again with mixture of vinegar and
steel filings OF. of steel filings dissolved
paper down with fine paper until quite
smooth. Then oil and fill in with powdered
drop black mixed in the filler. Then pro-
coed to body up, using little drop black
in your polish. Work to be ebonized
should have good level body of polish.
Should your body become rough or unlevel,
use little powdered punlice stone tied up
in piece of rag. Dust your work lightly
over with it. When bodied up let your
work stand for twelve hours, then body up
again with white polish. If your job is to
be bright polish, finish off with spirits.
If dull, rub down with powdered pumice
stone and felt rubber until sufficiently
dull, then dust off with clean rag"
STAINING. cannot imagine why any,
one should wish to stain wood to initiate
black walnut, except it is to match in re-
pair work, and even then the strepair is
easier made of walnut, though that wood
is becoming somewhat scarce. The color
of walnut is not pleasant, and only in the
genuine wood is it endurable. 1t is a
strong, easily-worked wood, and hence its
popularity. To mahoganize is more de-
sired. Cherry is one of the most common
ly-used woods for this purpose. If proper.
| ly treated, cherry is one of the finest
cabinet woods, and it seems almost pity
to use it for initiating anything else, even
though it be mahogany. One recipe says,
I'll of %ha ri
smooth, rub with solution of nitric acid
and then apply solution of dragons
blood. The solution is made by dlssolving
one ounce in a pint of alcohol and adding
one third of an ounce of carbonate of soda or
common washing soda. Sulphuric acid will
answer just as well. Its Office is to darken
the wood and prepare it for receiving the
dye, which is the dragons blood. Recent
experiments lead to the belief that the only
advantage of the washing-soda is to neu-
tralize any of the acid which may remain
behind. Another recipe calls for the acid
treatment of the wood first, which is then
followed by liquid made with two ounces
| of logwood, eight ounces of madden, one
| ounce, 1of fustlc and one gallon of water.
| This is boiled two hours, and then applied
to the wood. Unfortunately, there are no
recipes, SO far as we know, which give di-
rections for using logwood, dragons blood,
| etc., in the shape in which they are found
in the shop For example, instead of log
wood in chips, it is much more convenient
to buy little four ounce box of the ex-
| tract of logwood, and instead of the mad
der coming in the old form it can now be
obtained in the form of a solid which
| is all ready to be dissolved in
boiling water. By dissolving sep
arately the logwood, dragons blood and
| madden in water, and then after getting
them of good strength, mixing a little of
each and drying on waste piece of wood.
the proper proportions necessary to get
| Just the color desired are easily found. 1t
must be borne in mind that the logwood
gives purplish tone to the mixture, and
that the others, if kept to themselves, will