imitation of plain maple. The same colors being used in either the
natural color imitation or the gray tone with a somewhat different
manner of laying on the color with the sponge, in order to produce
longer ridges of mottlings than is usually necessary in plain maple.
These mottlings must be running in one direction mainly, but in a
haphazard sort of way, and not uniformly as in ladder rungs. It requires
some experience and an intimate knowledge of bird's eye maple growth to
do this preliminary laying out of the work. It is not difficult, but it
must be done in the right manner in order to produce natural looking
results.
110. The putting in of the bird's eyes is done in various ways--some
ways being better than others. One of the ways used by many is to use
the points of the fingers upon the still wet distemper color and to peck
it on usually upon the apex of the ridge of the mottles. It is far from
being the best way, but it is the quickest. In the natural wood the eyes
are very seldom found upon the darker mottles, but more frequently upon
secondary ridges between them, or even upon the valleys laying between
them. As there is not enough color left there to produce them by
peeking them on with the fingers, the operators by that method have to
confine their work to the aforesaid ridges, where they really do not
belong.
Much better and more natural ones can be put on with a fine pointed
artist's sable brush, and when one has become habituated to their use
they are very quickly made.
Again they may be put in with colored pencils of a tone deep enough to
suit the rest of the work. This is more quickly done than with the sable
brush, but the strokes cannot be varied as with that, and the more
artistic graining requires their use. There are a number of other more
or less mechanical processes used in producing the bird's eyes, but none
surpass the one's described.
The veining is done with colored pencils as related in paragraph 104 and
overgrained as described in paragraph 105.
In all cases where graining is done in distemper it is to be understood
that the graining is to be varnished or receive a protecting coat of
some kind or another, and as this is required in all cases of distemper
graining it will not be repeated hereafter.
QUESTIONS ON LESSON XX.
106. What is said regarding the graining of bird's eye maple?
107. In what medium is bird's eye maple usually grained?
108. How are the grounds to be prepared?
109. How would you proceed to put on the mottling lay out?
110. How are the bird's eyes put on?
LESSON XXI.
GRAINING SYCAMORE, CHERRY AND SATINWOOD.
111. Sycamore is another wood which, like maple, shows but little pores.
Its growth, unlike maple, is an indescribable interlacing and twining of
its ligaments which when sawed produce an infinity of variations with
short, jerky, snappish terminations, and an infinity of short mottlings.
This very infinity at last produces a uniformity on account of their
smallness, as the eye cannot catch all their variations. Were it
possible to greatly increase these of such a size as those of maple,
sycamore would be one of the richest of our woods.
112. It is passably well imitated in distemper work and grained quickly.
The ground should be deeper than that of any of the woods previously
described, of a decided buff tone. The graining color should be made
from raw sienna and burnt umber in distemper. The graining should be
done with the sponge and immediately well blended. If the sponge is
pecked on to the surface to be grained, the blending will produce the
small mottles, and another pecking done in such places as needed and
blended will usually produce a very fair representation of the wood.
Another way is to put on the color evenly with either a sponge or a
brush and to rotate the rotary cylinder rubber roller graining tool upon
it and blend quickly. This gives a very fair imitation if well done.
CHERRY.
113. Cherry graining presents no great difficulty, as it is a wood of
very plain growth, so much so that it looks rather tame and for that
reason it is very seldom imitated by graining. There are some of the
rooms in the old-time houses where the woodwork is cherry, and it
sometimes happens that repairs are done to it, and which have to be
grained in order to match the old work.
114. The ground color is made by tinting white lead with ochre, venetian
red and burnt umber. A very fine stipple of burnt umber much reduced
with whiting may be given it and the veining should be put in with a
pencil of the proper color, which should in no wise be very prominent
as in the natural wood it does not show much darker than the fine pores
or stipple work. Of course all of the work is done in water colors.
SATINWOOD.
115. Satinwood, with the one exception of holly, is one of the easiest
of all woods to imitate. There is but few markings upon it and next to
nothing in veining. Mottlings of no great prominence by their depths of
coloring are the only markings. The wood varies somewhat in the depth of
its tone from a light to a medium tone of buff.
116. The ground will vary from a very light buff to a darker shade of
the same. As said before the graining consists of mottlings which are
not very prominent, therefore the graining color, which is made up from
raw sienna and burnt umber in distemper reduced to less intensity by
whiting, should be put on thinly with a sponge and blended so as to
show no feathering.
QUESTIONS ON LESSON XXI.
111. Relate what are the main characteristics of sycamore?
112. How is sycamore grained?
113. What is said of cherry graining?
114. How is cherry grained?
115. What is said regarding the characteristics of satinwood.
116. How is satinwood grained?
LESSON XXII.
GRAINING OF LIGHT AND DARK MAHOGANY.
117. Mahogany is one of the most beautifully formed woods that nature
produces. In its plain form or in its most intricate featherings, it is
always pleasing to look at and its most profuse variations of form do
not cause any nausea nor does one become confused or tired of them. It
is found in many variations of color. New mahogany is very light
toned and seldom darker than a medium buff tone. It acquires a reddish
tone by age, which becomes a rich dark red in time. This redness is
usually artificially supplied in the natural wood by staining. In
graining it is the most usual to reproduce the rich red darker variety,
and that of the light varieties is only resorted to in order to match
some parts added to a room which has been finished in the light natural
wood.
[Illustration: grained door]
118. The ground for light mahogany should be a buff more or less dark,
according to the character of the finish wanted. A medium oak ground
made by the addition of ochre to white lead is the most usual for light
mahogany. For the darker mahogany imitations the ground should be rather
reddish and much darker in tone. To the white lead base should be added
yellow ochre and venetian red. For some specimens a trifle of burnt
umber should be added in order to darken it, but never sufficiently to
kill the red yellow tone.
119. The graining color for light mahogany is prepared by mixing raw
sienna and burnt umber in distemper; that used for graining dark
mahogany is made from burnt sienna and burnt umber, the manner of doing
the graining in either coloring being the same. Mahogany seldom shows
any regular veining, but soft tones of mottlings, rather coarse and
lengthy, but these usually are not numerous in what is known as plain
mahogany. The whole character can be put on in one operation and with
the sponge, which by the proper pressure will make out the broad
veinings, which when blended out to bring out the feathering usually
suffice to give the right character to the wood. The proper use of the
sponge should be practiced in order to make the color lay strong in
parts where it is wanted dark, and to wipe it out thin where but
little coloring is desired to show over the ground.
[Illustration: grained door]
In some specimens of plain mahogany many fine pores appear, and it may
be well to flog a few of the lines made by the sponge lightly before
blending. This must be quickly done, as otherwise it would become too
dry for blending. There will be enough porousness show after the
blending to make a more natural appearance than if the stippling had not
been resorted to.
120. Crotch and feathered mahogany should be well studied out in order
to reproduce it rightly. It is not very difficult to do the work, but as
said before the operator must have a good idea of what he is going to do
and should have the space to be grained all pictured out in his mind's
eye. The feathering is brought out by the proper use of the sponge and
the blending of it properly afterward has much to do in the making it
look natural, for if it is not done right it will make an otherwise
good piece of work look ridiculous. In the natural wood these fine
markings are very scarce, and never seen outside of veneers and are
costly, therefore hardly ever seen except upon high priced furniture,
but in the grained imitation the operator can indulge his wildest
fancies in reproducing the choicest specimens of the wood at a small
outlay.
121. In the crotch mahogany veneers one will frequently notice a fine
set of veins which cross the mottlings or featherings in an opposite
direction. They are not nearly as prominent as these, but seem to be a
succession of fine paint lines. These when put in as they should be help
out the graining very much, and the putting of these in is the chief
object of overgraining. The coloring should be the same as that used for
the graining, only thinned a trifle more and sometimes just darkened a
bit more by the addition of a little ivory black in distemper. The fine
lines are put in with the fan overgraining brushes from which the hair
has been well thinned out, so they will separate by running through a
comb into a number of parallel fine lines.
QUESTIONS ON LESSON XXII.
117. What is said regarding the graining of mahogany?
118. How are the grounds of light and dark mahogany prepared?
119. How should plain mahogany be grained?
120. How is crotched and fancy feathered mahogany to be grained?
121. How is mahogany overgrained?
LESSON XXIII.
GRAINING WALNUT.
122. At one time when graining was at its height, walnut graining was
next to oak, the main wood which grainers had to imitate, and some of
them attained to such skill as entitled their work to be called _art_.
It is not used just now to near the same extent that it used to be, but
as the prevailing sorts of woods that are grained are subject to changes
caused by fashion, there is no telling how soon walnut graining may take
the lead among the dark wood imitations. The color of the various
specimens of walnut vary greatly. The general tone of American black
walnut is darker than that of the European species variously known as
English, Italian, etc., they all being the same. But aside of the fact
that American black walnut is darker, the degree of darkness varies
considerably in various specimens. Walnut, especially black walnut, is a
rather coarse, open-pored wood, with a heart growth which is well
defined and of pleasing forms. The veneers which are sawed from walnut
roots and forks of limbs, as in the crotch walnut, are very intricate
and beautiful when all the details are well brought out by polishing.
123. The ground for walnut graining, as may be well supposed, will vary
greatly, according to the desired finish. The average European walnut
ground is made from ochre, burnt umber and a trifle of venetian red
added to a white lead base, and will be deeper or lighter according to
the finish desired. It will be more yellow in tone than the ground that
is used for the darker American species. For the latter the same colors
are used in preparing the ground, only that it is made deeper on the
average, and that it should not be quite as yellow toned as the ground
used for the European variety.
124. The openness of the wood represented by the pores is easily
reproduced by the stippling it should receive before the heart growth is
either wiped out in oil graining or pencilled on in distemper. Some
grainers dispense with it in oil work, but the finished work suffers
from it. The stippling color is best made from some good Vandyke brown,
and it may also be made from burnt umber in distemper. It should be
flogged on evenly and rather coarse, as it will not look good if flogged
too fine.
125. After the stippling the graining may be done in oil by wiping out.
The color used for graining may be either Vandyke brown, which has been
made more drying by the addition of an extra quantity of good drying
Japan, or from burnt umber, to either of which enough megilp has been
added to keep them from running when sufficiently thinned out for
wiping.
The easiest way of graining plain growth walnut of either the European
or American varieties is in distemper, and while it may not be as good
in the estimation of some, it is much more quickly performed, and when
well done will look fairly good and natural. For the graining of it in
distemper the same colors should be used in that medium as noted for oil
work, and the veining pencilled on the stippled surface and well blended
out while still wet.
126. The overgraining of plain walnut graining will add much to its
naturalness of looks. This consists mainly of the darkening of some of
the parts. It should be done with the oil color used in graining it in
oil for either oil or distemper work. In the latter case the color
should be sufficiently thinned and well rubbed out as to give it a coat
all over and afterward it should be wiped out from all parts where it is
not wanted with soft cotton rags.
QUESTIONS ON LESSON XXIII.
122. What are the principal characteristics of walnut?
123. How are the grounds for European and American black walnut
prepared?
124. How should walnut be stippled?
125. How is walnut grained in oil and distemper?
126. How is walnut overgrained?
LESSON XXIV.
GRAINING WALNUT--CONTINUED; BURLED WALNUT.
127. The natural plain growth of walnut usually presents no riotousness
and is rather staid and well behaved, but with a sufficiency in
variation to suit the most fastidious. Not so with burled walnut or root
walnut of either the European or the American varieties. One would
hardly recognize them as relations of the former but by that they carry
some of the colors of the plain, besides many shades more and variations
of them of their own. The European varieties are usually lighter toned
than the American sort, and the contorted course of the veining is
somewhat more regular in appearance, otherwise the burling and knots are
very much the same. The same design executed in either European or
American walnut would look well if properly done. There is considerable
system in the seemingly wild growth of walnut burls. Their
representation requires considerable study in order to represent them
naturally, not that it is very hard to do, but in order rather that it
be not overdone. There is nothing that has a more vulgar look than an
overdone imitation of burled walnut.
128. The student should familiarize himself with the growth of many
specimens and besides he should carry an imprint in his mind of all the
various natural specimens he may come across. In these studies he will
no doubt have noted that the ground color or the lighter parts in the
natural wood does not run uniform as in the plain wood. Some parts will
require a much lighter ground than others, and good grainers take
advantage of that knowledge and prepare the grounds in various shades in
order to produce the effects desired. Some try to obtain these by
overgraining, but while that improves the graining it will not produce
the realistic effects possible by the varied colored grounds. This
demands good judgment and a full knowledge of the intended work so that
a boy cannot be sent ahead to do the grounding, but the grainer himself
must do it according to his own conception of the intended work.
129. The graining is always done in distemper. The colors used are raw
and burnt sienna, raw and burnt umber and ivory black. To these may be
added Vandyke brown. The lay out is first laid out with a sponge. A
different sponge should be used in each color. After all the principal
features have been put on and blended properly, the work proper of
putting in the details commences and is done with camel's hair pencils,
fan overgrainers, etc. It is presumed that the student has practiced
these before, as he will hardly care to expose his ignorance upon a door
panel where it would be very likely to put him to shame. Nothing but
practice makes one perfect at this work. Yet many who have practiced it
for years fail to do as good work sometimes as a novice would, because
they have a false conception of it and keep on in the old rut, which was
wrong from the beginning. It is not difficult of execution, but cannot
be done right in a haphazard manner any more than by making lines and
curves and expect to produce a good sign if not put in their proper
places.
130. As hinted in paragraph 28, some grainers expect to do too much with
the overgraining. They try to correct a faulty ground work and to put in
many details which properly belong to the graining proper. It is
possible, of course, to help very much in the correction of many faults,
especially in those of bettering the mottlings, but if the graining has
not been laid out nor grained pretty near right, no amount of
overgraining will make it right, and more work that would have been
passable is rendered worthless by overdone overgraining than from any
other one cause.
QUESTIONS ON LESSON XXIV.
127. What is said of burled and root walnut graining?
128. How should the grounds be prepared for it?
129. How is burled walnut grained?
130. How is burled walnut overgrained?
LESSON XXV.
GRAINING ROSEWOOD, ETC.
131. Rosewood has never been very extensively used in interior
finishing. Its dark, somber tone unfits it for most situations and its
great cost unfits most people from even thinking about its usage.
Therefore, while the last reason has not been a factor in discouraging
its graining, the first one given has sufficed to confine its use to
that of a few fancy articles of bric-a-brac or fancy pieces of
furniture, and in the latter it has been mainly in the stained form that
it is seen. As, however, it sometimes happens that a grainer is called
upon to produce it upon a fancy box or something else, he should know
how to do it.
132. The ground for rosewood should be compounded from venetian red
brightened up with vermillion and lightened with white lead, but not too
much. It should be of a decided red, and while but little of it usually
shows through the dark superstructure of veins, and that little in the
natural wood is always of a decided red tone, some grainers add ochre to
the red, but that only serves to muddy up the red tone and should never
be resorted to.
133. The main character of the wood should be put on with a sponge with
distemper color consisting chiefly of ivory black, to which a trifle of
umber may be added, but which is not necessary really. The main
character of the wood is laid out in long, wide stripes, which should
consist chiefly of a number of fine lines or veinings. The first laying
out should be put on rather thin and allowed to dry, when the fine line
work can be put on with the fan overgrainer, and the parts of the ground
which have not been covered with the first wide stripe lay out mentioned
should be gone over with the fan brush and a number of fine lines made
running into the dark straight ones. It is between these that a little
of the ground will show here and there only. The character of the wood
should be well understood in order to make a fair imitation, and no one
will attain that by being told "how it looks," for that is impossible,
rosewood being so unlike any other wood.
There is usually no overgraining necessary if the work has been properly
done. Nor should the fine line work done with the fan overgrainer be
blended, as the veining stands out sharp. As sometimes the beginner will
be apt to have it show too much of the red ground, it may be well to
give a glazing coat of ivory black in oil over the whole surface and to
wipe up a few of the parts where the red ground is desired to show
through. This will act as a protection to the work, too, and when dry a
coat of varnish can be given it which will usually suffice then.
134. Many more woods could be given, but of all the rest yellow pine is
the only one which is ever likely to be imitated, and very little of
that excepting in the matching of some repair work. There is no reason
for giving it a special description, as that given in paragraphs 94 to
99, and especially in 99, will come as near to it as it would be
possible to make it.
QUESTIONS ON LESSON XXV.
131. What are the principal characteristics of rosewood?
132. How are the grounds for rosewood to be prepared?
133. How is rosewood grained?
134. What else is said regarding the graining of yellow pine and other
woods.
LESSON XXVI.
MARBLING.
135. The imitation of marbles and other stones of a variegated character
is much older than that of the imitation of woods by graining. This is
no doubt due to the universal custom of public buildings in the Roman
Empire being finished in stonework, marbles, jaspers, onyx and other
variegated stones. The patricians vied with each other in the lavish
decoration of their palaces, which were, of course, the real thing, but
many of the merchants and plebeians who could not afford these expensive
finishes, had recourse to an artificial representation of them, in their
principal chambers at least. The marble imitations found so far do not
speak very highly for the skill of the marblers of that period, and it
must take a rank far below that of other mural decorations done at the
same time presumably by a higher grade of artists.
136. The enormous use of marble and onyx in various decoration in this
country, which has been developed within the latter part of the past
fifty years, has been educating the people to the use of something
better than the miserable paper imitations which have paraded as marble,
or rather been a parody upon it. Such as these paper imitations have
been, it is no wonder that people of taste have tabooed them from their
homes, preferring a plain wall or washable varnished tile paper to those
ludicrous misrepresentations.
137. For many purposes marble imitations are beginning to be used much
more extensively than they were and good imitations always captivate the
attention of people of taste, with the consequence that when once
introduced in a neighborhood it soon happens that the man who is able to
do a good job is soon overrun with that kind of work. That it has not
become general is because, sad to say, it has almost become a lost art
from long disuse. The many cheaper halls, restaurants, etc., in public
and semi-public buildings where the real stone is too expensive; the
many private vestibules, halls and bathrooms, where their use is almost
imperatively demanded by good taste as the only permissible
embellishment to relieve the monotony of the walls, by at least a dado
imitation of good marble done _in oil_ and _washable_. An endless
variation in variously formed panels and cornices and surrounding
stiles, where contrasting colored varieties of marbles and onyxes can be
used, or their use in plain slabs as desired, will enable the artist who
does the marbling to produce an individuality of work on every job. The
good marbler is entitled to be called an artist, for it is only an
artist who can vary this infinity of forms properly. Not that the
execution of the work demands great ability in reproducing it--the
artist's skill is developed and shown in the proper arrangement and use
of coloring, and also in the proper tracing out of the work itself, but
that without the other will surely disappoint.
138. Many marbles resemble each other very closely excepting in their
coloring, and even in marbles of the same quarry there will be found
such variations in the forms of their veinings, agglomerations in those
of conglomerate form that really no well defined description can be
given of any of them. The general characteristics is all that can be
said of any of them and some general directions given under each which
will help the student to do his work upon right lines.