the flower-blood-has dyed it a brown or brown-green. So you must become familiar with the peculiarities of form and color of each flower that is to adorn your work.

SHADE AND SHADOW.

So far our way has been very smooth and easy, but now we are at the foot of the hill.

You say a white flower is white. Please put your white flower, at a little distance, where the light will fall on just a portion of it, hold it for example in the sunlight. Look at it steadily through your eyelashes and you will perceive a great difference between the part whereon the light falls directly and that which is in the shade (illustration II). This

color is the shaded part? You see the white is darkened, dulled, the color is broken, as we say, by the shade falling on it, but what colored silk will give that effect? Look again very attentively, perhaps it partakes of a green, perhaps yellow or even a blue tone, and the very lightest tints of these colors will serve as a means to represent that shade.

What you have seen in the white flower exists in every other one, no matter how rich and dark its local color may be, only the darker tones of the same color are used for the shading.

It is this play of light and shade of which there are very many gradations that makes you cognizant of

portions behind or beneath; notice that the shadow is very dark if near the object that casts it and is often darker than the shade. It is the careful rendering of shade and shadow that gives life and interest to your work.

To study this hold a flower very near like the one upon which you are engaged, so that the light falls on it from the front or side. Study it, then imagine the light to fall in the same way on your stamped flower, and you can easily presume where the light and where the shade would be, and where shadows would fall. But you must be consistent in this throughout your work, supposing the light to come from just one direction and all the shadows on the opposite side. Conflicting shadows are very difficult to manage, and had better never be undertaken in embroidery.

DISTANCE.

Now, just one law of perspective. If you want to have your work look like nature, you must make it appear as if some parts were actually

No. III.

nearer to you than others. You know in a spray of leaves and flowers all could not possibly be on the same plane, there is receding distance between them. Of course your stamping indicates this to a certain ex

tent, but you must still farther increase the effect. But how? Let me illustrate! Look at a tree that stands in your neighborhood and compare it with one at a great distance. Can you detect that the light on the near one appears verv, very much brighter than on the distant one? And that the shade on the near one seems correspondingly stronger? Very well, you have then discovered a very important law of perspective-light and shade and color appear dimmer, the

No. IV.

farther they recede. It is this, and difference in size, that makes distance perceptible to you.

Now let us apply what we have discovered. Inasmuch as there is a difference in the distance of the var ious parts of our flower spray from us, there is a difference in the strength of the lights, shades and shadows accordingly, even though it may not be apparent to the untrained eye; there is, even in so slight a variation of distance as presented in the front, side and back petals of one flower, when viewed from the side. So apply your lightest tints in the light portions nearest you, and your darkest in the shadows and deep shade in front. Work the distant portions in the medium tones only.

To aid in this expression of distance it is wise to give your most prominent place in the design to the lightest and brightest colored flowers emphasizing nature's law in so doing.

ow?

To understand the shading of heavy stems, study a cylinder or some cylindrical object. Where is the highlight, where the darkest shadow, where the intermediate tones? And what is the shape of these? (See illustration No. III.)

The sphere and hollow hemisphere (a bowl may represent the latter) are other types of forms found abundantly in vegetation, and the study of these is essential. The bowl of a rose petal, its calyx and a large variety of other flowers, berries, and fruits show this form. (See illustra tion IV.)

The veins of leaves should never be added or worked separate, except the heavily raised midrib of the underside of some leaves, but inasmuch as the midrib is ghter than the flesh, even nearly white at times, a tiny line of the white cloth is allowed to remain uncovered; this imitates that part of the leaf admirably. Express the veins by a contrast in shading-using a slightly darker shade on one side of the vein than on the other, and do not blend the stitches there. This leaves a distinct line. (See illustration V.)

BALANCE.

There is a balance of form and balance of color. In a design there must be a part of greatest weight, a center from which the minor parts emanate. These latter should be so arranged as to give an equal amount of form or weight to each side of the design, not an exact reproduction of form,which would give symmetry, but an equal distribution of dissimilar parts which gives balThe rose spray (illustration VI) expresses this. The center of interest or weight is in the three roses, the buds and leaves on one side balancing the lines and stems on the the other.

ance.

This principle in drawing is easily felt, for if, as instance, a flower on below or near the center we instincttop of a spray is heavier than one ively feel that the arrangement is not good and express it very likely by saying it is top-heavy.

Determine which the central or principal figure in your design is, and now try to give it color balance by placing there the brightest colors, and the heaviest shadows. In other words your greatest contrast of light and shade and color should be where the greatest weight of the design is. It follows then that edge figures and subordinate parts should be worked in quieter colors and medium shades, giving the effect of delicacy here.

or light. Study some good water color or pastel for background treatment. The darning stitch is very desirable for this work, and most frequently in use.

Having now studied our work and determined what we wish to do, the next step will be to determine the mechanical means by which to accomplish it.

There is shading by distribution and shading by blending.

The former distributes the shades in masses, making the light petals

No. VII.

all light, the shadow is a nearly unbroken mass of dark, the secondary

lights in one medium shade, etc. This is an easy method and very effective if properly handled, but at close inspection appears crude. The more advanced method is the blending of shades by working them over one another.

The historic apus plumarium or featherstitch is the one, for excellence, for this, and has been used since nuns vied with each other in the production of wonders of art needlework in the medieval twilight of civilization. It consists of rows upon rows of long and short stitches overlapping each other, about twothirds of their length, which results in a surface as rich as satin and an exquisite gradation of tones.

If the stitches overlap only a little, they appear as actual rows, and nothing attractive is obtained. But little progress is made at each succeeding row of stitches, but only in this wise can satisfactory results be obtained.

It is a helpful procedure to work in your darkest shadows first, then your lightest tints; this gives you a key to the remaining shading, and you can easily find the place for the medium tones.

Always remember to look to nature for your teacher, no matter what so or so may do, and inscribe on your embroidery frame the motto: Patience and study will conquer.