FESTIVAL · DECORATIONS
PART I.
During certain seasons of the year the decorator is called upon to furnish decorations for national demonstrations, society functions and the enrichment of halls, lawns, booths, etc. These decorations demand something more than the usual exhibition of a few flags and bunting, that may signify anything from a national victory to the opening of a saloon, and this branch of work is gradually becoming more important in the decorative business.
To successfully handle it to any extent it is necessary to carry on hand a quantity of the different decorative materials, such as flags, bunting, shields, banners, etc., and for quick and effective display a few of the following suggestions might be profitably adopted.
The natural advantages peculiar to each building frequently suggest the basis for a decorative scheme, and in planning an exterior trim it is best to first make a careful study of the building and jot down what particular features strike you as offering advantage or difficulty in their decoration. Note also the accessibility of the prominent places, and plan your trim accordingly.
Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance of this preliminary survey, for plans might be suggested which would have to be considerably modified in execution, to the disappointment of your customer.
After notes are taken, secure, if possible, a cut of the building from the stationery or advertising matter of the tenants or owners, and with these as a basis project your scheme of decoration. If a sketch must be made, adhere rigidly to the architectural proportions of the building, and be careful not to show streamers or festoons where your workmen would require wings to place them and glue to stick them in position.
The methods of disposing decorations for exterior work differ according to taste, and no hard and fast rule can be laid down as to what is and is not proper. We illustrate in Figure 39, on the opposite page, a few of the different designs which are most frequently used.
This building possesses most decided natural advantages, and the whole decoration could be carried out completely in any one of the different styles suggested in the illustration.
On the ground floor elevation we illustrate a number of columns resting on a square base and surmounted by an illuminated globe. The plinth (see detail Figure 40) is a square box covered with cotton stretched smoothly and tacked on the back or bottom to conceal the tacks.
The torus is a circular piece of board a little less in diameter than the top surface of the plinth, covered with cotton, also drawn tightly and tacked underneath.
FESTIVAL DECORATIONS
FIGURE 39. SEE TEXT ON OPPOSITE PAGE.
The framework of the shaft is made as Figure 40A. Two pieces of board are nailed together V-shape, and finished at each end with a circular piece of board the diameter you desire your shaft to be; this frame is covered with cotton pleated from end to end, as figure 40B.
This requires considerable practice to do it nicely, but when neatly covered with bleached white cotton, with pleats about one and one-half inches wide, it makes a very pleasing column.
The astragal, neck, ovolo and abacus (see detail) are covered circles of graduated diameters, all securely fastened together; the globe which surmounts the capital is a hollow shell made on a frame similar to Figure 41, and covered with alternate colors of cotton, the joins tacked together on the ribs and concealed by the puffing explained a little later.
When completed, the whole forms a light and neat semblance of a heavy fluted column, and gives a dignified appearance to a trim. If desired they can be made half round or half square and used as pilasters, made and finished in the same way. While not quite as effective, they require less time and material.
Fig. 40
Fig. 40A Fig. 40B
Fig. 41
Fig. 42
A, B, C
Fig. 43
Fig. 47
Fig. 47A
Fig. 44
Fig. 45
Fig. 46
Fig. 48
Fig. 49
The corner doorway of Figure 39 shows a round top shirred in with cotton or bunting trimmed with a couple of flags and a drapery of two alternate colors.
If the sweep of the arch is a semi-circle, take a piece of material a little more than half the diameter in width and as long as twice the diameter (or bottom measurement) and gather one edge into small pleats, tie it tightly and attach it to the centre of the bottom frame.
Commence in the centre of the top edge of the fabric and fasten it to the middle of the top frame, and, working from this each way, stretch the material smoothly into pleats radiating from the tied edge, and tack it all around the sweep of the frame, cover the bottom edge with a couple of flags draped as Figure 42 A, B and C, minus the sticks, and finish the outside of the circle with a puffing.
To make the puffing, fold a width of material (about 30 inch) into pleats about two inches wide, and tack one end of it to the point where the puffing is to finish. Leave a loop of the pleated material about three inches high, and with a single tack attach the goods three inches from your first tack; follow this out to where the puffing ends, and then go back over it and open each loop out nice and round, taking a selvage each way, as illustrated in Figure 43.
The sprays of flags between the columns are made as explained by Figure 44; the flags for these and the windows of the second story, manipulated as Figure 42 A, B and C, to produce the full-draped effect.
The double drapery of alternate light and dark festoons below the second story windows are gathered as Figure 45, the hands gathering down from the top edge till they meet at the bottom edge, as explained for Figure 36A, in chapter on scarf draperies.
The banners on the second and third stories may be made of bunting, joining the different colors together, or of cotton, with the colors and patterns painted on them. The draperies on the third and fourth stories are gathered as Figure 46, the hands gathering the goods as dotted line, and meeting about one-third of the distance from the top.
With an assistant to handle one piece of the goods, the alternate effect can be easily produced by making first a festoon of one color then a festoon of the other color, crossing the goods each time a festoon is made.
If you desire to use three colors, stretch one, preferably the lighter, straight along the back as a background and drape the others over it.
The wreaths and festooning on the third story are made of tissue paper or of cedar twigs tied together, and are quite effective in contrast with other decorations.
To secure the effect illustrated at the windows of this floor, the end of the material is tied into a bunch and attached at the bottom corner of the window (Figure 47), and then stretched up and spread along the top of the frame and tacked; treat the other side of the window the same, and finish the top with an inverted fan.
To make the fan, allow about three times as much material as the width of the space, and pleat one edge into small pleats; attach this to the centre of the top of the frame, and then carry the two outside bottom corners of the material up to the corners of the window frame, and gather each into a rosette, as Figure 47A.
The drapery on the top floor of the illustration is made as a scarf drapery. Gather the high points, allowing the hands to describe two sides of an equilateral triangle (Figure 48), and form the surplus into rosettes, the lower points gather as Figure 46; tie in position, form rosettes and carry the goods on up to the next point, as illustrated. Do not tie rosettes where the shields will be placed, but allow the goods to fall in a deep festoon. The shields or trophies are a quick and effective decoration, usually made of sheets of tin or heavy cardboard, mounted on a frame, as illustrated Figure 49, and painted with emblematic devices or coats of arms; flags are inserted at the top to form a spray.
The Venetian masts shown on the top of the building are very largely employed in out-door decorations, usually in the form of a colonnade, to line the sides of a street or walk, or to flank the entrance and approach of public buildings during a demonstration. A quick way to erect them when they cannot be driven into the ground is to stand them in barrels; fasten them upright and fill the barrels with sand or stones.
They may be any height, and placed as far apart as you wish, but do not put them nearer than a mast length apart to obtain the best effect.
The small triangular banners are suspended from the mast top by ropes attached at each corner of the wide end of the banner, a rod being hemmed in the banner for this purpose.
Festoons of wreathing or small flags and code signal flags may be strung from mast to mast with good effect. The decorator can easily arrange a variety of treatments embodying some or all of these ideas, and by following out the architectural suggestions of each building will obtain sufficient variety to avoid repetition.
Two things are to be carefully considered in decorations of this character. The danger of fire from contact with electric wires, and the changes which may be occasioned by the weather.
To avoid disaster and disappointment, use only fast colored materials, drive every nail and tie every knot to stay under the strongest wind.
Various schemes have been used to keep bunting draperies from flapping in the wind and lodging upon ledges or other projections, thereby destroying the effect of the decoration.
We have discarded all methods of weighting or tying the bottom edges, because these methods only serve to hold the wind, as does a close-hauled sail, and increase the danger of tearing away the decoration.
To prevent the drapery from becoming disarranged, make short festoons, and do not allow the top much sag. Use a double alternate drapery, and keep it so far away from projections that it will drop into place again after the gust has passed.
You will find if it hangs free with only its own weight to keep it in position that the wind will to a large extent blow off it, and it will not become unsightly.
Fig. 50.
Under ordinary conditions the colors red and blue used with white present a most attractive combination. For special occasions, however, any desired colors may be employed, bearing in mind the relation of one color to the other and the harmony of the whole.
In different countries the relative position of the three colors in a joined red-white-and-blue bunting drapery is different (Figure at head of page 26). In Great Britain, Netherlands and Paraguay red has the place of honor at the top; in the United States blue; and both observe the old law of heraldry that color must be separated from color by one of the metals—in this case by white, the emblem of silver. Where two colors only are used in combination better balance is obtained by having the darker band slightly the narrower. As the object sought is brightness, sharp contrasts give best results, always bearing in mind the correct harmony of related colors. Mourning draperies should avoid as far as possible fussy or frivolous tendencies, the festoons taking on the appearance of solemn massiveness, and finished at each extremity with a heavy cascade or tail.
Black, the accepted emblem of mourning, is either used alone or mixed with a small percentage of white in unobtrusive places.
Deep purple, symbolical of extreme grief, is used in conjunction with black as the official emblem of royal mourning.
The weight of the materials used for exterior decorations differs according to the taste of the decorator. We have found our purpose best served by using unbleached factory cotton of a fairly heavy weight, having it specially dyed to the colors in demand, and for white using a soft-finished bleached cotton or a shaker flannel.