The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-03-22


painter Lebrun who introduced the YER
tical frames still in use; both for carpet
and tapestry making. This upright
frame is from four to eight yards wide
and the warp chain is stretched on it
vertically. Behind this frame sits the
artist with his model or pattern behind
him. After having, with the assistance
of tracing-paper, transferred the out
lines of the pattern to the warp he in
dictates the dark shades by the series of
black and the light shades by q series
of red dots for the portion Of the work
which he expects to execute during the
day Having ''made up his box" with
the spindles of worsted of such colors
as will be needed for that day, he be-
gins to execute, using the spindles
| called brooches, instead of shuttles, such
as are made use of by weavers. Ac-
twists the wool (frame) around one,
two or three threads of the warp, fast
ening it with knot, and repeats this
| process with the same or with differ
ent colored worsted, according to pat
tern, at which he of course glances from
time to time. 1t is because he has to
tie this knot on the wrong side of
the warp that the artist is com
PEELED to stand behind the frame.
The work is exceedingly slow, de-
handing great manual skill and also
much Judgment in the selection of the
colors.
1t is mosaic work, but instead of lit
tie stone cubes the tapestry artist uses
aplOpoh NHrp,,Sfad Tho
of which we are standing is about 6x10
feet in size; it is not yet one-third fin
ished, and yet the artist has been work.
ing on it for more than three years.
1t will take him about eight more wears
to finish his work, and when it is done
it will represent pastoral scene--a
young man and young woman at the
side of lake, ducks and swans swim
ming in the waters, COWS in the back
ground, flowers and shrubbery, servants
in livery, a distant chateau-in brief,
sort of Vatican in worsted. It's value
will be very large; | cannot say how
much, as it will not be for sale. From
the tapestry atelier we 90 into the car
petweaving rooms, where the artists
stand in front of their frames and have
their patterns spread out above their
heads. The workmen are less skillful
and the worsted much cuarser here
than in the room we have Just left, and
when this wool is passed around the
warp it is cut off at certain distance
so as to leave long nap, the thickness
of.the carpet depending on this length.
As the pattern progresses this nap is
clipped with q pair of shears SO as to
present uniformly even surface. and
thus is formed what is known in COM
merce as a velvet carpet.
1t is believed that the success of the
Gobelins depends to great extent on
the excellence of its colors and that
these are only obtained by using the
waters of the little stream on the banks
of which it stands. This, however, is a
mistake, for the waters OF the Bievre
have become so befouled by the nu-
merous Lighthouses and tanneries in this
part of Paris that it is no longer used
by the Gobelins and has not been for
great many years. All the dye waters
come from the city works-from the
same reservoirs that supply my bath
room. The woods used are carefully
selected and assorted according to their
degree of fineness when received from
the spinning-mill, They are then freed
from all trace of oil or grease, after
which they are washed in thin white
wash; then they are arranged in skeins
and plunged into q solution of alum or
OF boiling cream of tartar; finally they
are placed in the dye-vats. The simple
colors are obtained by plunging the
skeins several times in the vat. Each
tint has its scale (gamme) of "A tones,
which pass from the deepest to the
hghtest shade, and the highest Of all
are obtained when the solution is the
weakest. 1t is practice rather than
theory that guides the dyer in obtain
ing these various shades. When the
color is u composite one the dyer must
know how to restore to the mixture
that ingredient which is most rapidly
absorbed, in order to keep it as even as
possible.
The greatest difficulty of the art of
dyeing is to obtain neutral tints Of Il
good shade / believe they have sue
ceeded in entirely overcoming this diff
Guilty out at the Gobelins. When the
woods are dyed they are washed and
sent to the warehouse, whence they are
distributed to the tapestry or carpet
weavers of the GObelins or at Beauvais.
| Formerly the woods were rolled mp in
balls, but now they are wound on the
spindles and then kept in drawers in q
dark room, so as to prevent the discol-
| oring effect of light on the dyes During
the reign of Louis XIV, when the artists
at the Gobelins had to reproduce the
pictures of the painters of those days,
in which delicate shades and neutral
tints predominatcd, the dyers made only
such shades us were needed. There
were about 1000 different tints regis
tered, each tint comprising about
| twelve tones, but the result was con
| fusion from which there was no escape.
The use of this infinite variety of shades
and natural tints resulted in their rapid
fading or discolorization, and this is
the reason why so many of the tapes
tries executed during the latter part Of
the eighteenth century have such n
washed-out, faded appearance.--ParjS
Cor. San Fran cisco Chronicle.
| =
The Only Thing Needed.
A smart-stepping citizen of Tennessee
was in New York a few days ago to see
about raising money for a proposed
railroad line down in his county, and