Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/138

Now you require some silver or brass wire, the silver is the prettiest but is 5/- per reel, the brass can be got at any ironmongers for 2d. per ring. You must also have some beads, tiny seed pearls, and also some small white glass ones, a pair of small sharp scissors, and a strong bonnet pin or coarse darning or ordinary needle for piercing the scales. I cannot describe to you how to make the flowers, beyond telling you to take any you wish to make, and pull it to pieces, lay a petal on a fish scale, and cut it exactly, or as near as you can, being sure to keep the butt of the scale to go nearest the stalk. A maiden hair fern is very simple, try it first. And to begin with, cut some of the wire in lengths of about three inches. Choose the very tiny scales for this, and do not cut them more than you can help, just shaving off the edges, and the least little bit pointing the butt. You want a small piece of board for piercing on. Now pierce a tiny hole just where the little leaf should join the stalk, pass a piece of wire through it, and cross the wire as close as you possibly can to the scale, and holding it between the finger and thumb, twist round and round it till you have about the eighth of an inch of closely twisted wire from the scale. The fish scale has a right and a wrong side, also a top and a butt. The top has a little delicate lining like a fan somewhat. Well, that traced part must be outside of the fern petal, Do several of these single petals, and then procure a frond of the fern and copy it as nearly as you can, always twisting the wires as closely as possible. Use a pair of nippers to twist with if it hurts the fingers, but it will not do that if the wire is the right size, it must be very, very fine. The beads are used in the flowers for the stamens and pistols. Take a bead, say a pearl (which should be kept for the pistols) thread it on a length of wire, and twist it as I have decribed. In some flowers the stamens are long—fuschias for instance. Having twisted the pistol and three or four stamens, now twist them all

together, always going by the flower you are copying.

The Fuschia.—For this you want four or five long petals, therefore, you want some large scales. Choose them out and cut the pointed petals crossways, leaving the outside of the scale for the outer edge of the petal. The king-fish or barramundi have the best scales for the large flowers. Having cut the long pointed petals, slip them backwards and forwards on the blade of the scissors (as you would if curling a feather. Do it on the wrong side, and so as they will turn outwards, like they do in the natural flower, fix them on to the wire, and then put together the centre. For this you want four medium sized scales, trim them with the scissors, bore, and put on wires. Now take first the stamens and pistol, letting the latter be a little the longest, twist these tightly together—about three or four twists will do as yet—the arrange the smaller petals over the stamens, &c., and twist them, and lastly, the long outer petals, arranging all as neatly as possible.

You can make a very pretty spray of fuschias, and then cut the leaves as well as you can from the largest scales.

A Rose.—This is the most difficult after a dahlia to do. Begin with the tiniest petals, putting one round the other as evenly and naturally as you can, letting the outside ones be loose as you go on, but the wires must all be twisted tightly. Small roses are easily made, and buds are too. The rose leaf too is very simple, and the outer edge must be serated like the natural leaf.

The Dahlia.—For this you proceed in the same way as the rose, but you have to roll or turn in each petal, which is easy enough till it comes to putting them together, and this part requires great patience and perseverance, but if properly done it repays one by its beauty.

The Geranium.—This is the most simple of all flowers to do, but as a few stamens greatly improve it, I