Scrollwork

“ Their work is marked by great judgment in varying the sizes of the iron bars and scrolls, by the variety and elaboration of the design, and by the judicious introduction of thin sheet iron, hammered and modelled into foliage or some heraldic device. The craftsmen seem to have known exactly how to handle their material so as to combine strength with lightness, vigour with delicacy, the open effect of scroll-work with the solid effect of foliage. ”

“ A piece out of the ear or first turn from the axis is, with a delicately carved scroll, so frequently seen as to be almost fashionable; little pieces out of the edges further off from the central part, are common disfigurements. Modern vandals rub these parts down with a file or glasspaper, to make it nice and even to their vision, saving themselves time and trouble. Many a graceful scroll, carved with loving care and enviable dexterity by a master of his art, has thus come to an untimely end. ”

“ Perhaps the workman may wish to impart to the deepest shading a look of remoteness. This can be done by giving the dark shades a thin wash of some transparent glazing color, as, say, carmine, purple, and crimson lake, or ultramarine blue of the different shades. In Fig. 2 we have a panel design composed in small part of the original Roman scroll and in large part of the more modern style. Lay this scroll [87] in gold, and then apply a coat of clear rubbing varnish over the ornament before shading, high-lighting, etc. ”

“ It is a decidedly effective scroll and will afford the student in scroll work a good working plan for further effort. Nos. 8 and 9 explain the style of the good-old fashioned scrolls which, when ably executed, may be declared the poetry of ornament. Vehicle painting lost one of its chief charms when the relief scroll was abandoned, and we say speed the day when it is welcomed back to its old time uses and prestige. Then fortunate indeed will be the painter who is able to do relief scrolling. ”

“ Matthew Wilson, the principal merchant of Scroll-Saw City. It stood on a corner of Main Street, glancing slyly out of the tail of one eye, side-ways down the street, toward the shop and the business, but keeping a bold, complacent front toward the street-cars and the smaller houses across the way. It might well be satisfied with itself, for it had three more pinnacles than any of its neighbours, and the work of the scroll-saw was looped and festooned all around the eaves and porticoes and bay-windows in amazing richness. ”

“ If it reached the bottom ten tefachim and the wall is slanted such that the scroll can rest on it, it is forbidden to roll it back; so that it is not mistreated, he should turn it around onto the text. If the wall is not slanted, as long as it has not reached the ground, he may roll it back. ”

“ If, for instance, the main motive in the field was a vertical scroll design, a horizontal scroll design upon a large scale used for the frieze would answer, the field being kept flat and quiet; or the fan, or radiating shell form, used as a frieze, above a pattern on the scale plan, would be quite harmonious. Relation and balance of line and mass, and arrangement of quantities in such designs, are the chief considerations.
With painting or modelling an artist is freer, as he is at liberty to design a continuous frieze of figures, and introduce as much variety as he chooses. ”

“ There were no paintings or engravings on the walls, which, however, were not entirely devoid of pictorial embellishment. Four neatly cut pieces of drawing-paper were tacked thereon--north, south, east, and west--bearing each a couplet beautifully written within an illuminated scroll. The colors of the scrolls were green and gold, and the verses were written in shining Indian ink.
On the tablet on the north wall the lines ran:
He whose soul by love is quickened, never can to death be hurled;
Written is my life immortal in the records of the world. ”

“ The foliation of the scrolls in the same relief (Plate IX) has a character which makes us wonder how a designer who could so finely render the nervous life of leafage could associate with this leafage the lifeless details just noticed, and the further monstrosities of the axial composition including the characterless grotesque animals out of which the scroll leafage issues. ”

“ When all are prepared, they must be fixed most accurately in their places. The bell of the capital must be tinted previously, to resemble in colour the rest of the work.
105 Column, Circular.—This description of columns must be formed out of very thin paper, rolled as close as possible to the required lengths and diameters, thinning the paper at the extreme edge with a very sharp knife to conceal the join. If the columns are too small to be cleverly rolled, they may be turned as described for balusters ”

“ This is deposited in masses, which possess characteristic forms. Thus this roll, which looks as if [Pg 43] you had made a thin ribbon of paste, half an inch wide, and rolled it into a loose scroll of two or three turns, and then affixed it by its edge to the under side of a stone, is the spawn-mass of the Sea Lemon. And here is a much more elegant scroll, of which the constituent is a slender thread, twisted into a frilled or figure-8 form, as it goes on to make the spire. [19] This has been laid by the beautiful Crowned Eolis. ”

“ In scroll sawing much can be done that is pleasing to the eye in small works, but for large designs and intricate ones, the amateur will find an upright or jig saw necessary, unless he be more than usually patient. ”

“ The framework surrounding this drawing and its fellow is exceptionally rich in its decorative treatment. The columns with their basket-work and flat stucco-like ornament are connected across the top of the sheet by an acanthusleaf scroll design of great beauty, recalling similar work on the organ shutters in Basel Minster, which surrounds and supports a wreath containing an antique head in the centre. The scroll-work in the next design, the “Stripping of Christ’s Garments” (Pl. 49 (2) ) , [344] is entwined round the bodies of two naked boys. ”

“ Work is also tested by means of the try-square. Place the handle of the square against the edge of the work with the blade of the square extending across the planed surface, and move it the length of the board. Any irregularities in the surface will show themselves as the blade passes over them. In planing up a block of wood, plane up one side and, after proving it to be true, use it for the "tried edge," testing the other sides with the handle of the square pressed against its surface. ”

“ When the content is longer, we get page-widening horizontal scrollbars. If the content is more than half the width of the content area (a function of your viewport size) , the scoot-left leaves the original position of the positioned block hanging-off the right side of the screen and you get a scrollbar. There's nothing over there to see, but the positioning of the outer element expands the area of the viewport and the position of the inner elements isn't pulling it back. ”

“ There can be no doubt as to the superior boldness and legibility of the Upright penmanship. The down strokes are of the same length and weight in each column but the effect is wonderfully different. It will be seen that the vertical affords much more scope for a bold and perfect outline than the oblique style can possibly admit of, and that the greater the slope, the more attenuated, the closer and more imperfect the outline. ”

“ When the more solid ornaments are securely attached to the frontal, the scroll-work belonging to them may be added as far as can be reached without interfering with the tucks in the linen, which may then be let out. ”

“ The cases are divided into compartments by fluted Ionic columns 5 ft. high. These rest upon a flat shelf 14 in. wide, beneath which are drawers for papers and a row of folios. This [317] part of the structure is 3 ft. high from the floor to the base of the columns. Above the columns is a cornice, part of which is utilized for books; and above this again is the gallery, where the arrangement of the shelves is a repetition of what I have described in the lower part of the room. Dwarf cases in a plainer style and of later date are set along the sides and ends of the room. ”

“ Where we are limited to decorating a wall by means of plain painting, stencils, or wall-paper, this idea of reposeful constructive lines and forms on the lower wall should still dominate upon the field. Subject to our repeating plan we may be freer both in line and form, using free scrolls, branch-work, fruit, and flower masses at pleasure, because the space is more extended, and we shall feel the necessity in a repeating pattern of spreading adequately over it ”

“ Before the fabric is put in the clipping machine the number of threads to the square inch in the groundwork of the fabric, as distinguished from the colored threads which form the figure, is uniform throughout the fabric, so that if in any of these fabrics a square inch is selected for the purpose of the count, in which there is no figure or part of a figure, the number of threads in that square inch will be the number of threads in any square inch of the groundwork of the fabric. ”

“ X. Inscriptions appear sometimes to be introduced for the sake of the scroll on which they are written; and in late and modern painted glass, as well as in architecture, these scrolls are flourished and turned hither and thither as if they were ornamental. Ribands occur frequently in arabesques—in some of a high order, too—tying up flowers, or flitting in and out among the fixed forms. Is there anything like ribands in nature? It might be thought that grass and seaweed afforded apologetic types. They do not. There is a wide difference between their structure and that of a riband. ”

“ In the Early English styles they were not very large, sometimes slightly undercut, sometimes deeply, sometimes a quarter round with chamfer, and very frequently a “roll” or “scroll-moulding,” so called because it resembles the part of a scroll where the edge laps over the body of the roll. Labels generally resemble the string-courses of the period, and, in fact, often return horizontally and form strings. They are less common in Continental architecture than in English. ”

“ A specimen of the form of template for drawing these curves is shown in Figure 213; g g, is the centre line parallel to the edges R, S; lines m, n, represent the diameter of the thread at the top, and o, p, that at the bottom or root; edge a is formed to the points (found by the constructions in the figures as already explained) for the tops of the thread, and edge f is so formed for the curve at the thread bottoms. The edge, as S or R, is laid against the square-blade to steady it while drawing in the curves. ”

“ I will content myself with one more example (fig. 144) which shews the screw exceedingly well, and the two tables above it. The uppermost of these serves as a ledge to rest the books on, as does also the hexagonal block above it which conceals the top of the screw [534] .
We meet occasionally with a solid desk, by which I mean one the level of which cannot be altered. ”

“ The column should be of such width that reading of the matter can be accomplished with only slight movements of the eyes to the right, after they have been focused at the beginning of the line to fit the size of type. When the column is too wide the head must be moved to the right and left with the reading of every line or the eyes may be injured from the strain and repeated change of focus. ”

“ Figure 87 is a simple primary mass without enrichment. It is comparable to the plain box-like structure with monotonous outline and without interest. The eye follows the outline in the direction of the arrows, pausing at the square corners, which interrupt a free movement by a harsh right angle. The base (an appendage) repeats in each instance the lines of the primary mass.
Figure 88. Round corners, by freeing the design from the right angles, accelerate the eye movement and give a sense of added interest and grace to the contour. ”

“ Firstly, there is the shape of the panel itself. A well-known exercise for the Teacher's Certificate under the Department of Science and Art is to give a drawing of a plant adapted to design in a square and a circle. Now in the abstract one would be inclined to select for a circular fitting different forms from those one might select for a square filling, since I always consider that the shape of the space must influence the character of the filling in line and form. ”

“ On strong paper describe a circle a little larger than the surface of your sun. On this trace two spirals, one-twelfth of an inch apart, and open the intervening space with a knife, cutting the paper from the circumference, decreasing in breadth to a certain distance from the centre. Then cut the remainder of the circle into similar spirals, alternately open and close. Paste it on an iron hoop, supported by an iron cross, and set all on a stand which will let it freely turn round its centre. ”

“ No matter which segment of the scroll we see at one time, it makes a beautiful composition, although when we examine it as a whole it possesses no more unity than a river landscape seen from a moving boat. Linked-verse at its best produces a somewhat similar effect. ”

“ This149 end should be slightly beveled from one side to form a protruding edge, over which the small curled end of the material is securely held while the scroll is being bent. A view of the former as it is used to start a scroll is given in Fig. 129 showing the metal in proper position for forming. The end indicated at a, Fig. 128, may be bent downward and edgewise to a right angle, as shown, or, if desired, it may be forged square to fit the hardy hole of the anvil, but as this tool is most conveniently used when held in the vise, the method shown at a is better. ”