The sun., 1904-08-21
WOMEN IN The ART CRAFTS.
WIN SUCCESS AS POTTERS AND
METAL WORKERS.
DeveIeA Ament Of the Work Of Women Along
the LINE Of the Decorative Arts-A
New kottery From Southern College
-Handn,ade Metal Work Well Paid.

In an uptown store devoted to art crafts.
in which everything is handmade and
each piece of worh is credited to the maker,
like paintings in an art store, 1t is interesting
to see how the work OF women Is developing
along the line OF the decorative arts.
at is not strange" said the proprietor.
when the movement started by William
Morris spread to this country women were
the ones who had the leisure to fuss with
art crafts and work with them at home for
their own satisfaction
Mrs. Montgomery Sears Of Boston,
working away over her beaten silver for
pure love of it until she had produced some
OF the finest work in America, is an ex-
ample. Here and there women, finding
that they could make sa1able things, have
gone into the business for money, but never
for money alone. They always preserve
their love for the work itself, which is what
distinguishes an art craft from just plain
craft.
.Take pottery, for instance. Every one
knows that the famous Rookwood was in
vented and developed by a woman. Now
there is another woman, a former worker
in the Rookwood rotteries, who is making
the only porcelain in America, except the
DTOOuCC OIL Ouo ENoW OehSoy Pauht'
.She has little kiln out in her back yard
in Cincinnati, where she produces from
ten to twenty pieces a month, and she de-
serves great credit for the perseverance and
ability with which she has developed true
porcelain.
-The credit for the most distinctive con-
tribution Of the South to the art life OF
America must also be giveE to woman.
A new pottery is now coming up from New
Orleans, from the college for young women
founded and endowed by Sophie New
comb, which is pronounced fhe most dis
tinctiuely indigenous ware yet produced
in America.
1T seems to possess no sugg estion what
ever of the older wares of Europe and Asia,
and the distinctive fora Of the South, like
the cotton plant and sugar cane. have been
utilized as suggestions for the decorative
motives in distinctively original manner.
@The college management, desiring to
develop artistic handicraft, was checked by
the fact that there was no opening for en-
ployment along that line in the South. A
pottery was therefore established under
the MANAGEMENT OF the art department Of
the college, and there the graduates Of the
course were employed. As result, many
reput alton in an artistic vocation which
they would otherwise have been unable to
pursue.
You see these gray pieces of salt glaze,
decorated dec in indigo blue9 That was made
bv one of the first women in America to
make pottery. She began soon after the
.This odd black ware, on the con-
in unique guild OF women, This guild is
made UP of set OF women who studied art
under n well known painter.
SAT the conclusion OF their course they
consulted together and decided that it
form of art than to continue to paint as an
accompaniment of slow starvation. They
consulted the painter, and hs told them
there was plenty they. could do II they
would consent to submit to few require
ments. The first was for each to select a
and without any preliminary instruction
learn to handle It herself. Then they were
to 20 through a thorough course of study
from the best standards: after which they
were to let their originality crop out as it
sThey have all become art craftsmen of
a high order. This black pottery, which
in it's glaze and finish reminds you Of some
Of the Pueblo Indian, pottery, is the work
of two members, mother and daughter.
aDo YOU see these two exquisite haonxe
belt buckles one with Swastika design,
ornamented with red coral, and the other
made OF two little Greek figures, with blood
stone in the centre? Those buckles cost
S2S apiece and there is not another like either
in the world. The maker cast them and
then destroyed the die. She is another
member Of the guild.
sThese beautiful boxes Of hammered
silver with enamelled tops are by another
member So is this silver chatelaine bag.
in which the maker knit the bag Of silver
beads, turned out the silver clasps and ham
mered the top of beaten silver.
sSuch workers cater to the women OF the
millionaire class who are willing TO pay
double in the world