There is a disposition to sneer at several varieties of ornamental work which do not meet all the requirements of the present rage for high art. Wax flowers, leather-work, etc., are regarded as having had their day, and owning now no real right to existence. It is a fact, however, though such work is out of place among the elaborate decorations of the modern house, in the large proportion of houses, where hammered brass, and cloisonnee, and miracles in embroidery, cannot come, that harmonious color, and arrangement of simple materials, will give an effect of suitability which is often wanting in more pretentious houses. And in any case, the chief use of these materials is, after all, to educate the eye and hand ; and the child who makes her tissue-paper flowers as much like nature as possible is making ready for better work with better material, and if a taste for carving, or modelling, or painting, develops itself, may owe it to close study of what can be done in leather or wax.

Tissue-paper comes first in order; the materials costing little, and the tools being so simple. French tissue-paper, as it is called, though really made in England, is the best, and comes in all colors, at about sixteen cents a quire. A little highly glazed paper will also be needed for calyxes, etc. The stamens and pistils are sold at wholesale, but may better be made at home. The tools needed for really successful work are moulding-tools, curling-pins, and a pair of nippers, with good scissors, and a heavy lead or brick pincushion stuffed with bran, which can bear a heavy pressure. Some gum tragacanth or arabic, a little box of powdered starch, some colors (also in powder), and a little raw cotton, will also be needed, with some fine wire of two sizes. It is best, if you make the patterns yourself, to take real flowers, and copy them as exactly as you can. When each pattern is cut, write the name on it, and keep an account of the number of petals, the shape of calyx, and every point you might otherwise forget. Never cut more than three thicknesses of paper at once; for not only is it likely to slip, but it will spoil the fine edge of the scissors also. Tweezers make very good nippers, and are used in crimping the petals of carnations and some other flowers ; the petal being laid on the cushion, and plaits being made in it by pinching the paper between the tweezers. Fingers can be used, but the creases will not be as crisp and natural. The calyx for the flowers is cut out of the glazed paper; and glazed cotton thread can be used for stamens, by first waxing it, and then dipping the ends in mucilage, and then in the powdered colors. Stamens can also be made of horse-hair. A daisy is very easy to imitate. This is cut out in a circle, divided into twenty-three pointed petals, each divided from the next by a cut about a quarter of an inch down the length. For the centre, cover a small button with net, and dip it in cement, covering it before it dries with either yellow mustard-seed or seed-beads. Let them get perfectly firm, and then dip into the powdered yellow. For the stalk, wind green tissue-paper closely round fine wire, and fasten it to the back of the button; then pass the calyx over it, and gum firmly in place. For a bud, cut a smaller corolla, and gum the petals very lightly together, dipping it slightly in the carmine powder.

For the rose, the petals of which are given here, cut ten smaller petals out of the palest part of the pink paper, and the others of somewhat deeper color, the three outer ones so as to have the upper part of the petal of the deepest hue. Mould each set of petals together, by placing them on the cushion, and drawing the ball-tool of the requisite size firmly down from the top to the bottom of the petals. This will hollow and crumple them so as to present the crumpled appearance of vrose-leaves ; and the edges of the larger ones must be curled back with the curling-pin or the nippers, by drawing these sharply behind them. The small petals should then be placed within the larger ones (excepting the five of No. 4, and three of No. 5, which are put on separately), gummed at the points, and put on in a body, by taking them all up together with the nippers, dipping the points in gum, attaching them to the cluster of stamens forming the heart of the rose, and winding a little fine thread round each bunch of petals. The five largest petals and the three outer ones are put on, with gum and thread, below and between the others; and the stalk is passed through the prepared calyx and seed-pod, and finished by winding narrow strips of green or brown paper, gummed at each end, round the stalk. The buds and leaves are fastened to the stem by winding paper round them in the same way.

Fig. 93.

Five of No. 4; ten of No. 3; five of No. 1; three outer petals.