The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-02
bound in gold and Confederate Gray, will carry conviction fherever 1t Is raad
Women as Craftsmen.

In an uptown store devoted to art crafts. in which everything Is hand made and each piece of work is cred tied 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 decorative arts, says The New York Sun.
 Tt is not strange" said the proprie- l tor. When the movement started by William Morris spread to this country, women were the ones who had the lei. sure to fuss with art crafts and work | with them at home for their own sat- | isfaction.
 Mrs Montgomery Sears, of Boston, working away over her beaten silver for pure love of 1t until she had pro . duced some of the finest work in l America, Is an example. Here and there women, finding that they could make salable things, have gone into business for money. but never for mon ey alone. They always preserve their love for the work itself. which is what distinguishes an art craft from just a plain craft.
 Take pottery for instance. Every one knows that the famous Rookwood was invented and developed by a wom an Now there is another woman. d former worker in the Rookwood potter
 
 America. except the product of one New Jersey plant.
 She has little kiln out in her back yard in Cincinnati. where she produces from ten to twenty pieces A month, and she deserves great credit for the perse- verance and ability with which she has developed a true porcelain.
 The credit for the most distinctive contribution of the South to the art nf AtVan nrf~ o1 An woman. new pottery is now coming up from New Orleans, from the college of young women founded and endowed by Sophie Newcorlb, which is pronoun Q ced the most distinctively indigenous ware yet produced in America.
 Tt seems to possess no suggestion whatever of the older ware of Europe and Asia. and the distinctive flora of the South. like the cotton plant and sug ar cane. have been utilized as suggest - ions for the decorative motives in a distinctively original manner.
 The College management, desiring to develop artistic handicraft was checked by the fact that there was no opening for employment along that line In the South. A pottery was, there fore, established under the management of the Art Department of the College, and there the graduates of the course
 
 young women are now gaining money and reputation in an artistic vocation which they would otherwise have been unable, to pursue.
 You see these gray pieces of salt glaze. like the German kitchen jars and pots, decorated in indigo blue? That was made by one of the first women fin America to make pottery She began soon after the Centennial
 This odd brickware. on the con- trary, is one of the latest developments in a unique guild of women. Tkis guild is made up of a set of women who studied art under a well-known painter.
 At the conclusion of their course they consulted together and decided that 1t would be better to find some more practical form of art than to con- tinue to paint as an accompaniment of slow starvation. They consulted the painter. and he told them there was plenty they could do If they would consent to submit to a few require ments. The first was for each to se- feet material. clay, wood or something else, and, without any preliminary in- struction, learn to handle 1t herself Then they were to go through a thor ough course of study from the best standards. after which they were to let their originality to crcp out as 1t would. l They have all becon ne art craftsmen