The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-02-01


ment by lovers of the art of the needle. No
woman who is fond of needlework need
ever know a dull minute. and what would
many do whose lives are lonely and void OF
varied interests, without the companion
ship of this unfailing friend. With its for
getful help, how many solitary hours glide
by unnoticed. how many pointless AFTER
moons are spirited away, We lose sight OF
our troubles and forget the little harassing
cares of daily life in the love of creating
beautiful design. deft fingers joying In the
skill of their handicraft.
The cult of the needle is essentially wom-
ans safety valve. and a blessed occupation
for an overweight brain. Needlework Is
to woman. what smoking is TO man-an oft
and much-needed sedative.
| The Bible has given a dignity to the art
| of needlework, for did not our Lord him
self command Moses to enshroud the Tab
ernacle the Holy of Holes of the Israel
ties. with veil Of fine twined linen OF
cunning work, whilst the hanging of the
| door of the tent, was to be of blue. purple,
scarlet and fine twined linen, wrought with
needlework?" Rachel made Joseph "a coat
| of many colors," and Hannah sewed for
Samuel the coat she brought up yearly to
Jerusalem. But the only allusion, curiously
enough, to needlework in the New Tesla
ment, when we might suppose that the
knowledge of sewing had become more gen.
eral amongst Jewish women is that of Dor
cas-, when the widows, weeping, showed
Paul 'the coats and garments which Dor
| cas- made. whilst she was with them"
| The art of producing ornamental needle
work had been common TO all nations and
dates for many years b. G. We ind IL
amongst the red Indians of America, as
produced on their embroidered blanket
wrappers. The wild savages of Fill Sa-
moa and the South Sea islands use bead
ornamentation for their somewhat slender
| attire. The Laplander embroiders upon the
reindeer skin patterns worked with needles
| of reindeer bone, with thread made or
| strips of hide or the sinews Of the same
| animal. The Incas embroidered the shrouds
| of their dead. for in the tombs in Peru have
been found fragments of strips of linen
| with elaborate designs carried out on them
specimens OF these in wonderful state
| of preserva' ion can be seen at the South
| Kensington Museum. The Persians and the
| Turks excel in embroidery. particularly the
| latter, who lay on the gold thread and the
| silver and brass wire in elaborate patterns,
| radiating from a store of cut glass in the
center. What this needlework must be to
| those poor women forever shut up within
the walls OF the harem, we, their more for
tunate sisters, free to roam the world over,
can scarcely guage.
| EMBROIDERIES OF THE EAST.
But 1t is to the Chinese that we must look
| for the most elaborate examples of silk
embroidery Their patterns are gorgeous.
| and their monster golden dragons, worked
| in solid gold thread with tails curling and
| twisting over yards of satin. are unsur-
passed But the coloringl it is screamingly
loud. and positively painful, to the eyes.
Grass green. ultramarine blue. full-fia-
vored orange. and, above all, the crude
| mandarin yellow, are their peculiar favor
| ites-colors found nowhere else. And to my
mind all Chinese embroideries (and 1 have
seen some of their choicest stores laid out
| in the court of the legation at Peking)
| are spoilt by this crudity of colors.
Nor, much as love the dainty little Jap
anese7 with whom art is as the air they
breathe. can 1 always acquit their wares
of the same glaring defect. Although we
must remember that many OF the kimonos
and "obis" (sashes) brought over here as
specimens of Japanese art. are those which
are only worn by geishas, or the maidens
who serve in the teahouses. whilst the Jap
anese ladies affect such sober and soft
shades. as dove gray. electric blue or a
soft fawn color, delicate semitones, which
am sure they derive from the pale tints,
and opalescent glows that fade into creamy
mists. around the snow-clad summit of
their beloved Fujiyama. For does not the
cone OF Full dominate their art, as it does
every part of their tiny country.
The Indian embroideries, specimens of
which are brought to their highest perfec-
ton at Delhi. excel in the groundwork #
their gold thread. interspersed with silken
embroidery. but here again they are in the
massively gorgeous taste of the oriental
idea of beauty. 1t was at Delhi that the
Queens coronation robe was designed and
worked. under the direction of the vice.
refine. Lady Curzon. and expect after the
great durbar is over this winter we shall
see an ebullition of Indian embroidery ap-
pearing all our friends dresses during
the next London season.
MY EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS
are connected with days of the "high art''
craze for crewel work. Every one had a
piece of it on hand; specimens of it lay
4
antimacassars or borders to the mantel-
piece. The material used was of coarse
unbleached crash" the woods were of high
art shades of sage. and olive green, gray
blue or dull orange. for we were all living
then under the influence of the school of
Burne-Jones. Morris and Crane. How ugly
and formal were the patterns we worked,
how impossibly conventional were the
leaves and flowers we designed. resembling
nothing so much as the freehand drawings
set before young art students and much
detested of them. Yet this crewel work was
only. after ALL a revival of those ancient
bed hangings and bedspreads that we still
see in old Elizabethar and Jacobean coun-
try houses. which were worked on the self
same coarse linen, and also in shades of
art woods Still. this self-same work served
a purpose in its day. for it heralded the re-
vival of more artistic form of work
amongst young ladies. who now abandoned
the tatting of antimacassars, the wool
work slippers and the knitting of silk
purses. which had hitherto satisfied their