In the method of ornamenting wood-work already given, you have durability with simplicity. With a little skill and care, another method can be adopted, and will help you to ornament brackets, panels, picture-frames, and the covers of blotting-books, which may be made in thin slabs of wood having the edges rounded off.

To take a pattern from a fern-leaf, first cover the wood with the stain made according to the directions already given, then press the fern-leaf carefully down upon it, the face of the leaf downwards; work it down close with the fingers so that every part of the leaf comes in contact. After a minute or so, carefully lift off the leaf; you will then have the full impression of the leaf, with its principal veins. The veins, being the hollow of the leaf, will not touch the wood, consequently all the stain will be left there. Should the pattern require any touching up afterwards, that is easily managed. If carried out properly, this is an effective way of performing "nature's printing." After the stain is quite dry it can be varnished, and then there will be no fear of smudging the pattern. Very pretty arrangements and designs can be carried out by this method, for any pattern cut out in paper or cardboard can be treated as the fern-leaf; also any design and floral devices, and almost as effectively as if the leaves themselves were actually photographed.

The other method that is equally durable is to trace any design in pencil, then with one colour or more, it can be traced on the wood. Suitable boxes of colours are sold for this purpose at a cheap rate. Many of the free-hand drawing copies that are in use in our schools just now, offer good examples for this kind of work.