Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-11-04
WOMEN AND THEIR WORK.
New Industries Opened Up for the Exercise Of
Their Talents and Tastes.
Od9eI

among the new industries which art
training has opened up are the beautiful
decorative pottery, porcelain, and glass
now being produced on so many sides, on
which hundreds of women are employed.
At recent meeting of one of the princi-
pal female schools of art in Lordon it was
suggested that women were specially suit
ed for the delicate work of medal making
and gem engraving which has been little
practiced in late years. Certainly the
etching on glass, and the exquisite cameo
glass produced by the art-trained students
at Strourbridge, would lead US to imagine
that there was no sort of engraving or
cutting which could not be successfully
attempted by women; and we may hope
that this new opening may in short
time become as fourishing as those which
have preceded it.
Embroidery is essentially woman's
sphere, although IN ancient times it was
practiced by men-and even to-day in
Belgium the professional embroiderers
are all men. There is something, how
ever, to the modern mind out of place in
the idea of man handling needle for
decorative purposes, and it is most GER
tainly not trade which he can exercise
better than woman.
any other perhaps as reguards manipula-
ton, is, however, extremely mechanical
and is devoid of the artistic mirit of the
less finely finished work of England and
America. It is easy to understand that
this should be so when we know that each
man excels in some one stitch, which he
carries to the greatest possible perfection
but he is quite content to work as a mere
but the mechanical dexterity to which he
has been trained. Each separate part of
the embroidery is given to a different
hand to do; thus each part is perfect and
the whole is reduced to a dead level of ex-
csllence of kind it may be-while it is
deprived of all the individuality and in
terest of true art work.
This is quite different process from
that by which Eastern nations work. It
is true that special modes of work are
practlced only in certain districts or per-
haps even certain families, but each
worker is an artist, and as a rule they
have less to guide them, and more is left
to Individual cleverness than among our
selves.
A Japanese worker has NO guide what
ever but his own taste, which has become
an instinct; and he may be seen plotting
out his coloring, working little bits of
ever SO many different flowers or birds to
get at the right balancing of his shades.
The Indian embroiderers who have been
brought to this country have not been of
the same class and have only produced
the very mechanical gold and silver Or
beetle-wing works but it is evident from
the examination of the best Persian and
Indian work that it is quite as much the
result Of the artistic individuality as any
of the Japanese.
With the sound artistic training which
women are now getting, all the work which
is done should be OF a higher class. In
some of the best colleges it is good to see
that each student is made to learn draw
ing before she is allowed to embroider:
and there is no doubt that she ought in all
cases be able to draw, or she will never
understand, as she ought, how to keep her
lines and curves perfect or how to mass
her light and shade.
When embroidery was first revived in
England as an art, soma fourteen years
ago, the difficulties were great, workers
had to be trained, materials manufactur-
ed; IN short, clever women had to edu-
cate themselves from the study, and Of
ten the unpicking, of old specimens 1t
was much that the manual dexterity was
gained, and along with it a certain
amount Of artists effect. Much however,
remains to be done; and amongst the
number of new schools and societies
sprlnging up some certainly surpass the
older ones by the very strength which they
gain from the better art culture possible
to their students, and from the advan-
xubi oh 10 lo h.
of beautiful examples of Eastern en-
bro1dery which are now finding their way
westward.
There is talk of reviving the lace in
dustries in England, in the same way that
embroidery has been revived by means of
the better educated workers., who would
bring more cultivated taste to the task.
1t needs, however, to be learned young,
and school of lace making to be success
full should begin by training girls of 16 at
latest.
For real lace of a high-class and of
good design there is always a demand,
and, with our increased artistic know
ledge, it should be possible to introduce
lace that should draw by the beauty of
It's general effect, and its design, without
depending exclusively on its extreme
tineness of thread.
tone time lace-making was the fayorite
pastime Of our great ladies, and it might
easily become SO again if it were possible
to obtain the needful instruction. The
reason of its failure some years ago when
1t was brought in as fancy work was that
it was but imitation after all, done with
cotton instead of linen thread, and with
machIne-made tape.
If revived as an art it must be taken in
hand In the same spirit as other decora-
tive wor has been revived. It must sur
pass all that has been known before, and
with the increased facility of art training
now within reach of all, and with the
necessity for women's work being a seri-
Gus item, which is daily increasing in all
the older countries, there should be no
difficulty in finding workers who would
make the start. There is something ex-
tremely fascinating about the making
of pillow lace and it is so durable, and in
every respect SO superior to the machine
made limitations, that. these are no more
to be feared than the embroidery ma
chimes, which do not in the slightest de-