If you have an old work-box, or desk, or table-top, or screen, which
has grown shabby, and which you would like to renew, we can tell you
how to do so. First, you must take those generous friends, the woods,
into your counsel. Gather and press every bright, perfect leaf and
spray which comes in your way this autumn, and every graceful bit of
vine, and a quantity of small brown and gold-colored ferns, and those
white feathery ones which have blanched in the deep shadows. These
ready, paint your box, or whatever it is, with solid black, let it
dry, rub it smooth with fine sand-paper, and repeat the process three
times. Then glue the leaves and ferns on, irregularly scattered, or
in regular bouquets and wreaths, as suits your fancy. Apply a coat of
isinglass, dissolved in water, to the whole surface, and when that is
dry, three coats of copal varnish, allowing each to dry before the
next is put on. The effect is very handsome. And, even without
painting the objects black, this same style of leaf and fern-work can
be applied to earthen vases, wooden boxes, trays and saucers, for
card-receivers. For these, you may get some good hints from the
illustrations on subsequent pages. The same illustrations will apply
to the "novelties in fern-work" given further on.