Studio: international art (62.1914)

JAPANESE STENCIL PLATES

The examples of Japanese stencil plates here
reproduced are from the collection of Mr. Wilson
Crewdson. Amongst the many methods in which
such stencils were employed by the artists of
Japan one of the most effective was the stencilling
of some small pattern in resist on silk Habutai ;
then, after the silk had been partly painted by
hand and partly dyed, the resist was removed, and
the silk untouched by the resist produced a small
pattern on the fabric independent of the dyed or
painted design. An example of this use is given in
the last of the accompanying illustrations ; here the

silk was first covered by a stencil having small dots
and two cranes. The resist when brushed on the
stencil protected the parts of the silk exposed to its
influence. Then the other colours were applied,
either by hand or by dipping the fabric in the dye
vat;■' afterwards the resist was washed off, and the
original colour of the silk exposed where it had
been protected. Though used mainly for the
decoration of textile fabrics, these stencil plates are
also used largely for other decorative purposes,
such as patterns for wall-papers, box linings, and
the panels of screens of a cheap quality.