NATURE’S FALL DECORATIONS, AND HOW TO USE THEM.
THESE beautiful decorations are free to all who care to possess them.
Every autumn comes to us laden with ornaments which no skilled workman
can rival. The graceful golden-rod, so rich in color, sways and bends
over the low stone walls, and in the fields wild flowers of all kinds
grow in great profusion. White, spreading wild carrot, yellow and white
daisies, light and dark purple asters, and sumach, with its varied
hues, give color to the landscape on our bright fall days. There are
also the queer-shaped pods and feathery, silky seeds peculiar to some
wild plants; among others the poor “vagabond thistle,” which has donned
its robe of glistening white, although some of its tribe still wear
their faded purple gowns. The latter may be gathered for thistle-puffs,
and all the objects mentioned can be used in home decorations.
We cannot pass by unnoticed the brown milk-weed pods, for within
the shells, full well we know, are hidden the silvery, downy seeds
which make such pretty milk-weed balls. Here, too, we notice the
rich coloring of bark as well as foliage, the bright scarlet berries
contrasting with the brown, yellow, and green leaves. The vine, once a
fresh green, is now changed to deep crimson; even the tiny leaves of
the wild strawberry and some grasses have touches of red on their edges.
How the rich coloring of autumn differs from the delicate tints of
spring, when the promise was made in bud and leaf, which is now
realized in the bountiful harvests!
Having such a wealth to glean from, we scarcely know what to take
first; but for decorations to last only a few hours it would be
difficult to imagine anything more brilliantly appropriate than
=Fresh Autumn Wild Flowers=
and small branches of brilliant fall leaves. At the time of this
writing wild flowers are very popular; one of our daily papers records
a wedding which recently took place, where the display of wild flowers
was beautiful in the extreme. Curtains of wood-ferns were caught back
with golden-rod, and a bower of holly and oak was fringed with clusters
of scarlet bitter-sweet berries. Daisies were also used in abundance,
while the beauty of the little church was enhanced by the masses of
white blossoms and oak-branches.
This idea can be used advantageously in decorating the house for
evening parties and receptions, or afternoon teas and coffees. Have the
flowers and foliage in masses, the effect is much better; and if you
gather very large, hardy ferns with their roots attached they will make
exceedingly graceful decorations, and placed in water or wet sand they
will remain fresh for days.
When golden-rod is gathered in its prime it will keep nearly all winter
without fading. Do not put it in water; all that is necessary is to
keep it dry. The rich brown cat-tails should be treated in the same
manner; these must be gathered at their best, before they are too ripe.
Bitter-sweet berries will last for months and retain a bright red. The
old-fashioned honesty, with its white, satiny pods, keeps perfectly
for any length of time. The wild rose-bush in the fall is decked with
seed-coverings, which closely resemble scarlet berries; these will last
for many weeks. The wild clematis, with its festoons of hazy fluff,
will keep for a long time, and always looks well when thrown over and
on the top corner of a portière and allowed to hang naturally down a
little on one side, or arranged in a similar manner over the tops of
windows, doors, pictures, or wherever it will look graceful. It should
hang out of harm’s way, as it is brittle and easily broken when dry.
[Illustration: A Young Decorator.]
For entertainments, the more elaborate and bountiful the decorations
of fresh wild flowers the more beautiful will the house appear; but
for every-day life during the cold weather, when we have only the
dried fall plants, we may almost make up for the lack of fresh flowers
by using judgment and taste in arranging the dried ones. Though wild
flowers are beautiful, you must use taste in their arrangement and not
mingle them together promiscuously, but make a judicious selection, for
where a light bunch of golden-rod would be the very thing needed to
give color to a particular spot, should the dark cat-tails be placed
there the effect might be lost. There are places where some high, stiff
decoration would look best, and others where the soft, swaying clematis
seems to belong. As with everything else, so with our decorations, we
must seek to have harmony.
Who has not admired the dark-brown, glossy buckeyes and
horse-chestnuts, and wondered what use could be made of them? Children
love to gather them and come home with their pockets and baskets full,
only to play with them for awhile, and then the pretty dark balls, each
marked with a spot of light cream-color, are thrown away or lost.
Now, the next time the buckeyes are collected save every one and make a
=Buckeye Portière.=
The writer assures you that you will find it much easier to do this
than she did to make a picture of the curtain, for it is difficult with
a pen-and-ink drawing to give an idea of the richness of color in the
handsome hangings these horse-chestnuts make when properly fashioned
into a portière for hall or doorway. Two full bushels of buckeyes will
be needed to make a curtain two yards and a half long and one yard and
a quarter wide.
Take a very large, long needle and a strong, waxed thread a little
longer than you desire to have your curtain, make a large knot in the
end of the thread, and commence to string your buckeyes in the same
way as stringing beads or buttons. Continue until the thread in the
needle is exhausted, then tie the thread in a large knot close to the
last buckeye, leaving a length of three inches of thread. Make your
other strands in the same way. When all are finished, fasten as many
small screw-eyes in a straight line on a curtain-pole, or a rustic
pole if desired, as there are strands of buckeyes, and tie securely to
each screw-eye one string of buckeyes. When all are fastened on, your
portière is finished and ready to be hung. This is easily accomplished
if the pole used is a regular curtain-pole, as they always come with
brackets; but should your pole be rustic, it must be supported by bands
of strong birch-bark, or leather, as in Fig. 131. Our illustration
shows over the portière a
[Illustration: Birch-Bark Support for Pole.]
=Panel of Fall Decorations.=
These also look handsome over windows and doors, and you are at liberty
to use ornaments of all styles, for the panels are placed where there
is no danger of anything coming in contact with them to break off the
decorations or mar their beauty. Any kind of board will do for the
panel, rough or smooth, as you like. Paint the board a pure white, then
decide on your ornaments, which may be a chestnut-branch with bursting
burs attached, sprays of common wayside velvet-leaf with clusters of
pods clinging to them, a piece of black-berry vine with its twigs,
thorns, and dried berries, or branches of buckeyes with some of the
nuts falling from their horned shells.
Select according to your fancy, and gild the decorations chosen, then
tack them on the panel. It is best to place the ornaments on the board
while the paint is soft and wet, for then it will help to fasten the
decoration more securely; if the paint be put on thick where the
ornaments are to be placed, they will lie partially embedded in the
paint, and when it dries they will appear as if carved from the wood.[D]
A white and gold panel made in this way is very pretty and inexpensive.
The fall decorations also enable us to make a very effective
=Louis Quinze Screen.=
[Illustration: Hinge for Louis Quinze Screen.]
[Illustration: Hoops Fastened Together for Louis Quinze Screen.]
For this it is necessary to have two small wooden hoops, such as
children roll along the streets; fasten these together with a strong
piece of white tape, two or three inches wide, cut the end of the
tape bias, tack this on the side of one of the hoops, bring it around
between and over the other hoop, and tack it again, repeat the
operation and the hinge will be finished (Fig. 132). If you look at
the hinge on a wooden clothes-horse you will understand how to make
one. Fig. 133 shows the hoops fastened together. Now cut two pieces of
coarse, strong cotton cloth, a little larger around than the hoops,
and place one of the pieces smoothly over one of the hoops; tack it
down, driving the tacks in far apart, and so that they can be easily
extracted; if the cloth wrinkles, keep changing it until the surface is
perfectly even; when this is accomplished carefully tack the covering
securely down, keeping it smooth and without wrinkles. In like manner
tack the remaining piece of cloth on the other hoop. Next get four
broomsticks and cut a notch on each one, at exactly the same distance
from the top, for the hoops to fit in. Then measure where you wish
the hoops to be placed and cut another notch on each stick a certain
distance from the bottom; all the sticks must be of the same length and
have the notches cut in the same places, so each one may be a duplicate
of the others. Mark the hoops where the sticks are to fit, and then
fasten them firmly on with small screws. Make the screen strong, so
that there will not be any danger of its coming apart. Give each cloth
a sizing of common flour-paste on both sides, then scrape off all the
paste with a knife; in this way the cloth will be starched and prepared
to receive the paint. When the screen is thoroughly dry, sew a branch
across one of the disks and some waxed fall leaves in the places
where they would naturally lie on the branch; when these are securely
attached, decorate the other disk with something different; acorns can
be used if cut in halves; but never place any ornaments on the screen
which will not lie flat, for if they stand out they will be broken off
or injured by persons passing and brushing against them. Now give the
screen a coat of white paint all over, including the branch and leaves,
but do not paint the hinge. Set the screen away until it is perfectly
dry, then gild the branches and leaves, connecting the latter with the
twigs by painting a line of gold between the two. Gild a ring around
each pole near the top and another near the bottom, and cover the edges
of the hoops where the cloth has been fastened on by tacking white gimp
around each one, using fancy brass-headed tacks and placing them at
equal distances apart; this completes the ornamental screen.
[Illustration: Louis Quinze Screen.]
Should you desire it, the screen can be painted black or any other
color, and the decorations bronzed instead of gilded. The bronzes come
in different shades, and the color of real bronze can be easily copied.
=A Panel of Field-Corn=
As an ornament for the dining-room is very decorative and easy to
make. When the corn ripens, select some nice, firm, golden ears, with
husks and without; then break off pieces of cornstalk and group them
together, as in the illustration; cover a board of requisite size with
a piece of old black velvet; if you have no velvet, paint the board
black, and after tying the corn firmly together, tack it securely on
the board, and the dark background will bring out the many yellow tints
of the decoration beautifully; fasten two screw-eyes in the back of the
board, by which to attach the wire, and the panel will be ready to hang
on the wall.
The corn can also be fastened to a rough board of the desired size and
the panel and decoration bronzed, using green bronze for the background
and portions of the group, while all the edges and prominent points
should be of copper-colored bronze.
Early in November the many varieties of gourds ripen, and their odd
and fantastic forms seem like nature’s suggestions of the unique
in ornamentation. So suggestive are they that it needs but little
originality to make them into many useful and beautiful articles. As
a decoration for looping over the poles of portières, and for holding
back draperies, these
=Ornamental Gourds=
are convenient. They must first be allowed to become perfectly dry;
then they can be made into tasselled festoons. Take six mock-oranges,
which imitate so closely our real oranges in color, size, and form,
and cut a hole about the size of a silver dime in the top and bottom
of each one; then shake out the seeds. To make the openings in the
gourds, first bore a small hole with the point of a large needle, then
twist the needle around and around until it will easily pass through.
Next, carefully enlarge the opening with a sharp penknife until it is
of the stated size. Make a rope two yards and a half long of Persian
colored wools or worsted; on the end fasten a slender tassel, six or
seven inches long, made of the same worsted; now string one of the
bright orange-gourds on the rope down against the tassel, which should
be large enough to prevent the gourd from slipping off; make another
similar tassel, and attach it to the rope about twelve inches from
the first one, and thread another gourd on the rope, bringing it down
against the second tassel; proceed in like manner with the remaining
gourds, making a tassel for each one, and you will have a decoration
unlike any to be found elsewhere.
We are all more or less familiar with the
=Gourd-Dippers=
so common in the South, where, in olden times, scarcely a spring
bubbled in a rustic nook that was not supplied with its drinking-gourd.
These dippers are made by sawing an opening in the large part of the
gourd, scraping out the contents, and making the inside as smooth as
possible with sand-paper. They need no ornamentation.
The kind of gourds resembling flattened globes can be made into
graceful and unique
=Bowls.=
The gourds must be sawed into two parts, with the inside of each
sand-papered, and flowers painted, with oil-colors, on the outside.
After they have thoroughly dried, give a coat of white varnish to both
the inside and outside. A pretty
=Bonbon-Box=
can be fashioned of one of these gourds. Saw off the top, which will
serve as a lid, and fasten it to the bowl with narrow ribbons tied
through holes at the back of each; line both lid and box with satin by
gluing it along the edges with stiff glue put on sparingly, and cover
the raw edge of the satin with chenille; this is also put on with a
little glue. Do not allow the chenille to interfere with the closing of
the box, but place it along the inside edge of the box and lid.
Another form is the
=Bottle-Gourd.=
Ornament this with ivy-leaves painted as if twined around bowl and
neck, and when the paint is dry varnish the gourd all over; if you wish
it for use as well as decoration, saw off the top about two or three
inches deep, shake out the seeds, then fit a cork in the piece cut off,
and so glue it in that the cork may extend an inch downward to fit in
the bottle.
The large egg-shaped gourds look well as
=Vases.=
[Illustration: Wire Twisted for Feet of Gourd-Vase.]
[Illustration: Foot Bent Down.]
[Illustration: Finished Wire Feet for Gourd-Vase.]
[Illustration: Ornamental and Useful Gourds.]
Select a deep-colored gourd, saw off the top and scrape out the inside;
then varnish the vase and mount it on feet of twisted wire, made
according to Fig. 134; bend down the feet, as in Fig. 135, when the
wire will be formed into Fig. 136. To fasten this on the vase, first
bore holes in the bottom of the gourd, then sew the feet firmly on,
passing the needle through the holes previously made and bending the
wire a little to fit to the gourd. Gild the wire feet, and your vase is
finished. Another way is to save the top sawed off, fasten an ornament
of twisted wire on the top of it, and then, after making the vase as
the one just described, add bands of gilded cardboard made to fit
the gourd, fastening them to the vase with glue. Handles can also be
fashioned of cardboard and sewed to the upper band before it is glued
to the vase, as in the illustration.
There are many other ways of utilizing gourds, but we will leave it to
your ingenuity to think up new and pretty conceits.
Pine-cones, large and small, acorns, and balls from the sweet-gum tree,
can be used as
=Small Decorations.=
Never try to fasten them by the natural stems, for these will soon
break off, but place in each one a small screw-eye, and when tied in
groups they form ornaments for waste-baskets and fancy baskets of all
kinds. We have seen chandeliers with gilded cones hanging from the
different points, and being the identical color of the chandelier, they
seemed of the same metal, and added novelty and grace to its appearance.
There are some varieties of the tree-fungi which make dark, rich-colored
=Brackets.=
Use heavy cardboard or thin board as a covering for the back; have this
fit the fungus perfectly, and fasten it securely in position with very
stiff glue or nails. Paint the back the same color as the fungus, and
on either side of the upper edge place screw-eyes by which to fasten up
the bracket.
Many of the curiously formed galls and oak-apples to be found on
different trees can also be employed as ornaments.
Nothing can be finer than our brilliant autumn season, which is said
to be more beautiful in this than in other countries, with its crisp
mornings and bright sunny afternoons.
When the weather is too lovely to remain in-doors, and all nature
invites us out, then is the time to gather our fall decorations.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: The Little Brown Squirrel.]
FOOTNOTE:
[D] For this work the staple-tacks used for tacking down matting will
be found very convenient.