PRINTING FROM NATURE’S TYPES.
LAST summer we made some lovely impressions of flowers, leaves, and
sprays; then we tried landscapes and all sorts of beautiful designs.
It is really delightful and fascinating work. You are led on and on,
always with a fancy to try something else to see how it will come out,
and seldom, if ever, is it a disappointment or failure, a new interest
being felt with every fresh print made. Moreover, you are sure of
having your picture original and the only one of its kind, for as no
two flowers or leaves are precisely alike, so no print can be an exact
copy of another. And then it takes only a few moments for the work
which could not be accomplished in thrice the time should a drawing be
made of the same design.
Let me tell you how to make an “Impression Album” a book of printed
flowers and leaves. You who have houseplants will find it a delightful
winter recreation, a novel pleasure, and you can enjoy the pretty
work even more during your summer vacation, with wild flowers at your
command.
[Illustration: Making Prints.]
The “prints” are taken from the natural flowers or leaves themselves.
Girls who have no knowledge at all of drawing or of printing can with
little trouble make these Impression Albums, and students of botany
will find the work supplies valuable memoranda of leaves and plants, as
the print preserves details of the form, fibre and veining of foliage
and petal such as no drawing or photograph can. The printing can be
made wholly accurate, giving all the minutiæ of construction.
[Illustration: Pink Oxalis.]
The tools required to make these print-pictures are simple, and
consist of a piece of glass, a palette-knife or table-knife and some
printers’ ink which comes in small tin boxes and can be procured at any
stationery store, and a pad made of a ball of cotton tied in a piece of
soft silk or satin.
[Illustration: Smilax.]
[Illustration: Evergreen Moss.]
The printers’ pad used by the writer for spreading the ink, was
manufactured of the satin lining taken from a gentleman’s old hat, and
answered the purpose admirably, being a good size, measuring nearly
four inches in diameter. The album itself may be a common blank-book,
with every other leaf cut out, in order to make room for the prints,
which are on pieces of blank unruled paper of uniform size, and small
enough to fit in the album and leave a margin all around the piece
inserted, so that the book when opened may be neat and attractive.
Having all your tools at hand, select the leaves you wish to print.
These must be free from dust or dew and perfectly fresh.
First, with your knife, place a small quantity of printers’ ink on the
piece of glass and smooth it as evenly as possible over the surface.
Then press the printers’ pad down lightly, lifting, and again pressing,
until the ink is evenly distributed on the pad; next, select a leaf and
place it face, or right side, downward on a piece of folded newspaper;
press the inked pad down on the under side of the leaf, which is now,
of course, lying upward, repeating the operation until the leaf is
sufficiently covered with ink. Carefully place the leaf, inked side
down, on the centre of the piece of paper you have previously cut for
the album; over this lay a piece of common yellow wrapping-paper, or
any paper that is not too thick or stiff, and rub the finger gently all
over the covered leaf. Remove the outside paper and very _carefully_
take up the leaf. You will find an exact impress of the natural green
leaf showing every one of the delicate fibres.
[Illustration: Skeleton Geranium Leaves.]
The picture is now ready to be pasted in the album, with a thin,
delicate paste, touching only the corners. It is a good plan to write
under each leaf the name of the plant or tree from which it was taken,
with the date, and such facts as you would like to recall. Very
valuable botanical collections can thus be made. Flowers are more
difficult to print than leaves, owing to less “relief” in the films;
still they make charming pictures when successfully treated, sometimes
having the appearance of photographs of flowers with all the lights and
shadows.
[Illustration: A Winter Landscape.
Printed from Nature’s Type.]
When printing flowers, proceed in the same manner as with the leaves.
Sweet peas, roses, daisies, wild carrot, clover, and verbenas, all make
beautiful impressions which look like photographs. Grasses of various
kinds also print well.
In making a spray, it is best to have a definite idea of the form you
desire it to take. If possible secure as a copy a natural spray of
the kind you wish to print. Then first print all the leaves in the
positions they are to occupy, and connect them by drawing in the branch
with pen and India-ink.
[Illustration: Maple Leaves.
Printed from Nature’s Type.]
The Winter Landscape is printed from dried twigs, grasses, and little
leafless plants, so arranged as to resemble trees and shrubbery.
Only have a little confidence and you can make etchings from
nature. Should you not understand drawing or composition, do not be
discouraged; obtain a picture to copy, and then hunt up little plants
and soft twigs as nearly as possible corresponding in shape and
character to the trees in the copy; in this way you can produce very
creditable landscapes.
Botanical impressions maybe used for “fancy work” by being printed on
satin, and the decorated satin made up as though it were painted or
embroidered; patches for silk quilts have been prettily decorated by
this process. The printings also make beautiful patterns for outline
work, much truer to nature than those made in any other manner and
afford infinite variety for “borders” and “corners.” Even satin dresses
can be beautifully ornamented with impressions of leaves instead of the
“hand painting” so long in use. You can, of course, see that should
several colors of printers’ ink be used, beautiful combinations and
pleasing variety would be obtained, and that probably some unique and
novel decorations would be secured.
Letter-paper ornamented with a delicate design printed from nature’s
types is very dainty and pretty, and in many other forms can these
simple and beautiful decorations be used.
Then bring leaves and blossoms from the woods or door-yard, and half
an hour may be delightfully spent in printing “impressions” which
will teach a lesson in botany, while the great variety of leaf forms,
difference in texture, fibre, veining and finish cannot fail to attract
your attention and call forth your admiration.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Corn Roast.]