Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1902-01-30
BEAD WORK REVIVED
BEAUTIFUL BAGS AND PURSES A
SEASONS FAD.
NEW DESIGNS RIVAL OLD
Fancy Furnishes Occupation for Wo-
men Who Need Light Work and
Pride Felt in the Work--Genuine
Artists Do the Designing.

| pSdueu
have been steadily gaining in favor
during the last few years have at
tanned the proportions Of fad They
are more beautiful and elaborate than
ever before, and the best designers
are puzzling their brains over mount
ings for them while manufacturers
are turning out machine crocheted
beaded articles by the thousand.
The best of the bags are hand made
and the amount of work put into them
| renders even the simplest of them eX-
| pensiye The more elaborate patterns
in combination with costly mountings
represent appalling figures in their
prices.
! One famous firm which was perhaps
the first in the country to start the
| renaissance of the beadwoTk has
! brought the art to a remarkable de-
| gree Of perfection. Its bead crochet
| ing is all done as piece work. That is,
the workers do not work in a shop or
factory, but each woman receives
her beads and design and does her
work at home. The workers have all
been trained, and an outsider can
rarely come in and take up the work
with satisfactory results from the
start.
at has taken practically fifteen
years to work up this industry" said
the superintendent who has charge of
the department. There were no
workers sufficiently skilled to make
bead work a fine art and that was
what we wanted it to be-
Our eat-grandmothers used to
carry beaded bags, and it was the
fashion for gentlemen to do bead
work, but it was crude sort of work
Samples of it float in here occasional
ly now that the fad has revived.
Women have kept them as family
relics you know, and bring them in
here to be remOunted. Usually the
silk on which the beads were Gro
cheted is rotted so that one can hard
ly touch it without damaging it, but
we apply it to a firm silk, line it,
me mt it, and it will hold together.
Here's a very old piece that was
brought in yesterday"
He unfolded a tissue paper and
showed a large unmounted bead bag,
on which crimson roses, bright blue
birds and purple lilies rioted over a
dark blue background.
There was a suggestion of faded
rose leaves and lavender about it, a
flavor Of antimacassars and old ma
hOgany furniture and poke bonnets
and hoop skirts and wax flowers under
glass cases.
Just compare the two" said the
superintendent.
He laid beside the old bag a new
one over which tiny arbutus sprays in
coral were scattered, on a grouRl of
crystal and steel. while the superb
silver mounting was inset with coral
medallions.
There was no lavender about the
new bag. It was intensely, aggres-
siveIy, eXquisitely modern and up to
date.
The red roses and blue birds and
purple lilies grew SITTER than ever in
rigid protest against the gay and al
Turing beauty. The old bag undoubt-
eddy must have been full of mute dis
approval of a charm SO foreign to it's
canons of fitness and propriety.
The superintendent wasn't man
of sentiment. He frankly pointed the
finger of sCOrn at the specimen Of the
dead generations taste
Pretty bad, isn't it," he asked
oj7 - Fair
costume, but the owner wants it
mounted, for the sake Of association"
Sentiment is a matter for women.
Fair hands are busy with bead work
again, as in the old days, and bead
crOCheting was much in evidence on
hotel verandas last summer. The har-
vest Of the summers industry is at
the shops now, being mounted for use.
Some of it is exceedingly pretty,
but none of it up to the standard Of
the professional work. The superin-
tendent had many specimens Of the
amateur work to show, some Of them
superbly mounted, but here again the
fine scorn of the artist rose to the sur
face.
''You see, they aren't glaringly
| hopeless, like the old bag" he said,
lingering a purse Of gray and pink and
pearl disdainfully. They are just
well, just common.
There's no character, no finish, no
| fine art about them. In the first
place, the amateurs can't get the right
beads. They aren't in the market.
| I'VE import all ours and choose
them with infinite care and pains.
They are smaller, finer in quality,
more perfect and varied in color.
Then we have designers who are
| genuine artists, working out designs
| that will be beautiful and permanently
| suited to such work. The design is
fitted to the shape, the color, the
| scheme for mounting.
"All is in perfect harmony. The
workers, through training and ex-
perience, are able to carry out the de-
signer's ideas. They are artists, too.
! in their own province.
Women do all the bead work, and
! the work varies with the woman. In
| dividuality goes into every piece made.
That is why machine crocheted bead
work cannot be compared with that
made by hand.
"a large percentage of our bead
| workers are ladies. / mean. they arc
women Of refinement and good birth,
who need pocket money and can make
| Il xL-s