Stránka:roll 1931.djvu/117

Handicrafts | 101 have a low roof over the passage, or they will leap over the black paint without touching it. Many of my experiments and results are recorded in Lives OF GAME ANIMALS. Smoke Prints of Leaves II FF 3 By Ernest THOMPSON SETON Maybe this is the oldest form of flat printing, for the leaves can print themselves if they happen to fall on a flat rock during a wet day. I remember the joy I had as a child in making these prints —for any one can do it. I only wish I had kept some of them, they would seem treasures to me now. But that was before the day of Tally Books. This is how they are made. Take a sheet of ordinary paper and grease it very well with butter or lard. Then hold this over a candle, grease side down so that the flame touches the paper; move it about quickly to keep the paper from — burning until it is everywhere smoked black. Now lay this black paper on a flat surface, black side up, and the leaf on it (usually the under side of the leaf prints better than the upper) cover this by laying a clean sheet of paper on it and press or rub all over this with the finger tips till every part of the leaf has been pressed against the black paper. Then lift the leaf and lay it, black side down, on a clean white sheet with a clean sheet over it. Hold it steady with one hand and press or rub all over with the finger tips as before. Lift the leaf up by the stem and, lo! you have a beautiful print of the leaf in permanent black ink. Add the name and date and your trophy is ready for the Tally Book. The easiest to print are the brambles, elm or dogwood. Ferns are always successful. Flowers rarely so. In making the black smoke paper it is wise to make it very black, but there should still be enough grease to make it shiny. If there is too little smoke the print is gray—if too much grease it smears. The same black paper will do for many leaves, especially if the black be evened up between times by rubbing it with the finger tips. A soft pad or sheet of blotting paper under the leaf makes a better print. A little practice enables any reasonably careful person to make the most exquisitely beautiful prints—the illustrations