right to suit
the finished work; the texture may be too coarse to put beside fine
embroidery, it may not be a good match, and, even if so at first, it may
fade quite differently from the worked silks. For these and other
reasons it is a safe method to make the cord one's self, possibly with
some materials of the kind already used in the embroidery.

[Illustration: Fig. 4.]

This appliance enables the worker to make any kind of twisted cord; it
is as simple as a toy to handle, and gives excellent results. It is a
metal instrument about 8 inches in height. The three small discs are
wheels, supported on the arms of an upright cross which has a heavy
circular base. These three wheels are connected by a cord with a larger
wheel below that has a handle attached to it. The cord runs in a groove
round the circumference of each wheel, and must be held taut in
position. By turning the handle of the large wheel the three small ones
are set in motion. Three hooks, attached to the axles of the small
wheels, are therefore rotated with them. One end of each ply of the cord
in making is looped on to one of these hooks, the other ends are
attached to three similar hooks fixed into a block of wood which, when
in use, is firmly clamped to the table. Further instruction in the
making of cords is given in Chapter XIII.

[Illustration: Fig. 5.]

To trace the pattern on to the material the following articles may be
required: Indian ink, a small finely-pointed sable brush, a tube of oil
paint, flake white or light red, according to the colour of the ground
material, turpentine, powdered charcoal or white chalk for pounce,
tracing paper, drawing-pins, and a pricker. This last-mentioned tool is
shown in fig. 5. It is about 5 inches long, and is like a needle with
the blunt end fitted into a handle. For rubbing on the pounce some soft
clinging material rolled into a ball is necessary. A piece of old silk
hose tightly rolled up makes an excellent pad for the purpose.

The knife shown in fig. 6 is useful for cutting out at times when the
use of scissors is not practical. It is used in an upright position,
with the point outwards.

[Illustration: Fig. 6.]

A spindle for winding gold thread upon whilst working is shown in fig.
7. It is about 8 inches long. A soft padding of cotton thread is first
placed round (between A and B, fig. 7), and the gold thread wound upon
that. The end of the thread passes through the forked piece at the top
on i