Cloth of gold or silver can be made by painting muslin, gauze, or net with gold or silver radiator paint. This can be stenciled by brushing the stencil pattern with rabbit’s foot glue, then removing the stencil and sprinkling the design with gold or silver powder. There are no materials more satisfactory than unbleached muslin or cheesecloth when they have been dyed. These are very inexpensive. The dyeing is not difficult and gives beautiful results for the small amount of time and effort spent. The better standard dyes are very satisfactory, and can be used either hot or cold. By combining the dyes in the same way that you would mix pigments (see page 94) you can produce any true tint or shade that you wish. Rich effects are often produced by a second and third dipping. Very often colored cheesecloth gains by being redipped. As an illustration, a piece of blue cheesecloth dipped in a green dye bath becomes a lovely blue-green. Experiment with small pieces of your material before you dip the larger pieces. The accessories of costumes, such as chains, brooches, girdles, and scabbards are often necessary. Beads of glass, wood, clay, macaroni, and various seeds can be painted, enameled, or gilded, and set into papier-mâché for crowns, brooches, bracelets, and earrings. Buttons and glass ornaments can be used in the same way. The design of a costume must be considered even more than its materials. A designer is an artist who uses fabric, color, and line to create an impression and to express an idea. He should study the play, and understand its dramatic ideas and moods. If he does this, his costumes will be as expressive, if properly worn, as the words of the actors. Historic costumes reflect in a remarkable way the life, tastes, and feelings of an earlier time. But historic costumes also require an artist to reproduce them. The designer of an historic costume should know a great deal about the people who first wore this particular kind of costume and why they wore it. He will then choose suitable materials and colors, and will try to reproduce characteristic lines and silhouettes. Last but not least comes the wearing of a costume. This requires two very important things: intelligence and imagination. The wearer, as well as the designer, should know the life, customs, and manners of the period which the costume represents. If he does not know them how can he move and gesture and assume the characteristic attitudes which the period demands and bring the costume into harmonious relation with the setting? A mask requires but few properties. A throne, a chair, or a stool may be sufficient, if well designed and of the proper period. A rich, colorful hanging or rug against a neutral background will draw your stage picture together and add dignity to a scene.