Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-01-20
Industrial Art FOR Women.

Mrs. Florence r.. Cory, in Il lecture
delivered at Steinway Hall, New York
ON "The Possibilities for Women IN In
iustrial Art" gives some very interest,"
inc statements. In commencing her
lecture by calling attention to the use OF
artistic design in almost everything
which is manufactured, she says:
Have YOU ever thought in looking
about YOU in even the most ordinarily
furnished room, at the wall paper, car
net. furniture, curtains either of lace or
heavier fabrics, gas fixtures and even
the carving and mOlding of the wood
work in the room itself, how many
hours of patient study, how much
thought of the adaptability, and how
much care the execution of the design
has takena We might say almost
everything is Ornamented 10y some de-
sign, our own clothing, table linen,
covers 10 books WE rgad-in fact near
IN all that We Use or see has been beau
titled 10y the taste OF man III one way or
in another" For years the nlanulac-
tur,rs i'm this country have depended IN
a great measure upon France and Eng
land for designers. These men are
trained from bOyhOOd 10 the work, sur
rounded by the best advantages. 1t IS
only within a few years that schools
have been opened i'm this country,
where those who desired could perfect
themselves in these branches of study,
and CnIy recently have women had any
advantages whatever of this kind.
Women in general have a good deal of
taste, and if the opportunity IS given
them there is no reason why they
should not be able To do this work rs
well as men. THE duties of the de
signer are simple. He must be III the
design room at u certain hour, ami stay
= certain length If time, while there do
ING merely what many Il poor woman
does every day of her life, ut starvation
prices, namely, paint! In some m
starccs designers are required to get out
. Given number of designs in u given
length of time. The merely mechani-
cal parts of the business are easily
learned; the rest requires merely taste
and a facility with the brush. Now Is
there any reason why Il woman cannot
10 thiS?!'
Mrs. Cory has made quite study OF
subject practically herself, especially
the carpet designing; and has provedthat
the work is such that women properly
trained can do it. She does not claim
that they can altogether complete with
some of those who have perhaps gwen
their lives TO the study, but that, i'll a
short time, with proper instruction,
they''can produce something which VIII
he Salable, and which would enable
them 10 become self-supportinS.
During the past year or two III many
branches of industrial design women
have been pressing to the front. Last
yeor in the Boston Institute of Techno-
Iogv there were twenty-One women and
eiChtqen male students. of this number
eighteen Ofthe women graduated, and
most of them are at present working rs
designers for various manufacturers.
Eight are i'm various print factories,
designing for chintZ and calico; TWO
have become designers for Oilcloths; one
is designing for the RoXbury Carpet
COMPANY; and one for the Trenton
China Works; and the others in diff
frrent mills. Carpet designing Is
particularly fitted for wOman's work,
and cpens q large field, for the demand
far exceeds the supply. The prices paid
for designs, and even copying, alloru
GOOD living, and when one Is expert, u
income. The work IS such
that il can be done ut home if desirable.
Original designs bring from ten dollars
to two hundred, according to the carpet
for which they are intended and their
Laboratories.
"The average length of time for max
inc a design is: For ingrains, two per
week; Brussels sketch, three per week
Brussels on the lines, one in two weeks
Moduettes and Administers, one III two
or three weeks, depending, of course,
upon the elaborateneSS and size OF the
pattgrn. Certainly this shows that the
work is profitable, TO say the least. AS
for rs regular salaries go, when the work
is done at the designing rooms, AMI the
artist is required to give his time from
Gin the morning until sin the afternoon,
the prices average rs follows: a good
Crigil al ingram designer, from two to
three thousand dollars per year; gooo
brussels and tapestry designer, rom
fifteen hundred to six thousand dollars
per year; copyists and shaders, from
ibTee 20 ten dollars per week"