A sketchy history of stenciling

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The history of stenciling is a bit sketchy.No one knows exactly when or how it started. Some say the Egyptians first used stencils for decorating mummy cases way back around 2500 B.C., yet others contend it was the Chinese as early as 3000 B.C.The difficulty in proving any of this lies in the fact that there are no leftover stencils; the materials used were probably perishable things like leaves or skins. Not until the Chinese invented paper around 105 A.D. was there any substantial substance that could keep the stencils from perishing.The idea that stencils originally were made on leaves comes from anthropologists. They discovered that Fiji Island natives adopted shapes from the holes bored into bamboo and banana leaves by insect larvae and used them as forms or stencils for decorating their clothing.In western China's Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, scientists found items dating from 1000 to 500 A.D. One was a piece of silk with a Buddha outlined in stencil form. The pattern was outlined by thousands of tiny pinpricks. Charcoal was poured through the tiny holes, and then the entire form was colored in by hand.In China, the original stencils were restricted to religious subjects; later, more secular subjects began to grow in popularity. Though silk was the material of choice, stenciling also became popular on cotton garments.The art of stenciling achieved its greatest degree of refinement in Japan, which might be attributed to the Japanese propensity for detail. Japanese subjects were taken from nature such as flowers, birds and dragons.When stenciling techniques reached Italy, they were used not as decoration but as teaching aids for children to learn letters. In the Middle Ages, France began to use stenciling for home decoration.The first wall coverings were flocked papers. Flocking was achieved by patterning the paper with a stencil; while the pattern was still wet, bits of shredded wool were brushed onto the paper. These papers were only 12-by-16 inches and were often used individually or in small decorative clusters.In England and Germany, stenciling appeared in the mid-18th century on floors and furniture as well as walls, papers and other textiles.(Rosemary Sadez Friedmann, an interior designer in Naples, Fla., is author of "Mystery of Color," available at Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Amazon.com. For design inquiries, write to her at DsgnQuest(at)aol.com.)