The decoration of plaques and vases is a very elegant and popular employment for ladies, and is rapidly growing in favor. Two methods are used, one in which the plaques are painted and the painting is burned in, the other simply requires the painting without the burning. The same suggestions also apply to vases.

Plaques for ordinary oil-colors are made of wood, paper mache, china, and porcelain, costing from fifteen cents for wood, to two or three dollars and even higher for porcelain, paper mache being the favorite. The paints and brushes are the same as are used for panel painting, except where the work is done on china, for "firing," when Lacroix's Enamel, or other mineral colors, must be used.

The sizes most used are from twelve to sixteen inches in diameter. For a background the whole plaque may be painted in graduated tints of sage green, blue, or brown; or it may be left the natural color, just as the design requires.

The Designs

In the selection of designs, the field is very wide, and ranges from a single spray of apple blossoms to animals, portraits, and landscapes. The picture should cover the plaque, not solidly, but the whole surface should be utilized and the design well balanced. Sometimes a center-piece is painted, with a tasty border. Very many persons will be at a loss to make their own designs, and to such, the suggestions and designs furnished by the Art Amateur, a monthly Art Journal published in New York, will be of great use. Others need but a slight hint from which to form a very good sketch, making the details to suit their fancy.

A very attractive picture would be a few stalks of ripe wheat, with a mouse perched upon one of the stalks; a faint attempt at a landscape, with grass and mushrooms in the background, and a pale moon in the distance. Paint the mouse gray; wheat, yellow; grass, green; mushrooms, gray on top and stems, under surface striped with black; and sky, blue.

Another good design is a vase of gold fish, with a young chicken near, and a few stems of grass rising from behind the vase. Paint the globe a light gray, and shade with a dark gray; fish, capucine red shaded with the same; chicken, yellow with shading of darker color of same; plants, green. Sprays of flowers with birds are not only very easily painted, but very popular.