CLOVER DESIGNS
HAVE you ever admired the pretty patterns on wallpaper of flowers and
green leaves? Have you ever embroidered dainty designs in colors on
white linen, and do you love it all? If you do, you will like to make
some designs yourself in a new way, and with real flowers and real
leaves.
You don't have to know how to draw or to paint in this designing, for
the flowers are there ready for you to use, more exquisitely drawn and
colored than the greatest artist could do them. Your part is to group
and arrange them on a sheet of paper so that they will form beautiful
designs; designs that will not only delight you, but that may be copied
in embroidery or in other ways.
Merely to place the flowers on the paper in some sort of a pattern is
interesting, but the design won't last because the flowers won't stay
in place. Your sleeve may wipe them all off, or a puff of air blow them
away, so a method has been invented especially for you that will keep
them where you want them to stay, and that method is simply to _paste_
them there.
You can make designs of almost any kind of flowers, the common
pink-and-white clover that grows underfoot nearly everywhere makes
a particularly pretty one. This is the long-stemmed, viny kind, and
its name is alsike clover. Fig. 15 shows what the alsike clover looks
like, and you will see that its leaves are rather pointed at the tip,
and shaped more like the leaves of the large red clover than like the
almost round ones of the little white clover.
[Illustration: Fig.15 - The Alsike Clover. Deep rose color. The way it
grows.]
[Illustration: Fig.16 - Upright design of Alsike Clover.]
The graceful, upright design (Fig. 16) was made of the alsike clover,
the blossom of which was a deep-rose color, and the original design
when finished looked like a piece of embroidery done in silks. It was
so lovely I wish that it could be given in its natural colors here.
[Illustration: Fig.17 - Parts of upright Clover design.]
Look at Fig. 16 carefully and see that while the sprays of clover
at the right and left appear to be exactly alike, though turned in
opposite directions, they are not really so, and the little differences
help to make the design interesting. They keep it from being what we
call monotonous. Now look at D, E, and F, Fig. 17. These are tracings
of the sprays of clover before they were grouped together to form the
design Fig. 16. The spray on the left, marked D, is just as it grew
and as it was used in the finished design; but F, on the right, had to
have the little budded spray added at the place on the stem shown by
the arrows to make it resemble and balance the other. This bud with its
leaves was clipped from another clover-vine.
[Illustration: Fig.18 - Running design of Clover.]
The spray in the centre of the design was like E, Fig. 17, and it was
necessary to give it the extra leaves shown at its right because,
without them, it was not symmetrical, which means evenly balanced, and
it would not have looked well in the design.
[Illustration: Fig.19 - Parts of running design.]
When all of the material was collected and ready to be put together,
the central spray, E, was laid in the middle of a sheet of unruled,
white paper with the lower end of the stem near the bottom edge, then
the sprays D and F were placed on the right and left of the centre
one and tried first in one position, then in another, until it was
decided that they looked best arranged as in Fig. 16. After that the
extra leaves for the middle spray, and the bud and its leaves for the
right-hand spray, were put in place.
[Illustration: Fig.20 - Large Red Clover design.]
It all seemed charmingly satisfactory, so the design was taken apart
that it might be fastened permanently in place. The middle spray had
to be adjusted first, and a drop of good library paste was put on the
under-side of the clover-blossom, a drop on the under part of each
leaf, and on the under part of the stem at the lower end. Then the
spray was laid in the middle of the paper just where it was at first,
and pressed down to make it stick. Paste was put on the under part
of each of the three leaves to be added and on the under part of their
stem at the end, and they were pasted down to look as if growing on the
main stem, opposite the other leaves.
[Illustration: Fig.21 - Design of leaves and buds of Red Clover.]
[Illustration: Fig.22 - Parts of leaf and bud design.]
Next the left-hand spray was pasted in place in the same way, then the
right-hand spray, to which was given its bud that curves in to almost
touch the bud on the other spray. Paste was also put half-way down on
the under part of the long stems of each of the side sprays.
This completed the clover design and it was exceedingly pretty, but
after it had been sufficiently admired it was placed between papers
under several heavy books to press, that it might be more durable.
It was after it had been pressed that it looked like a piece of silk
embroidery.
Pasted designs can be made without pressing; but while they are more
beautiful they will not last as long as the others. You can enjoy your
fresh designs for a while and then press them. Do not make the mistake
of covering the entire under part of a flower or leaf with paste as if
it were made of paper; a drop is all that is needed, more will spoil it.
Flowers do not always grow exactly as you want them for your designs,
but a too straight stem can be coaxed to curve by drawing it between
your fingers, and leaves and sprays can be cut away or added as has
been shown. All this changing about only makes it more fun to work out
the design.
Fig. 18 is a running design of clovers which can be used for a border.
The little arrows on Fig. 19 show where the different parts are joined.
The large red clover was used for the design Fig. 20 and the leaves
and buds of the red clover for Fig. 21. Fig. 22 shows how the parts of
Fig. 21 are put together. These drawings are all original from designs
actually made of fresh clover-blossoms and their foliage.