The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-11-18
WOMEN IN AIT CRAFTS.
THEY WIN SUCCESS - PorTERs
AND METAL WORKERS.


Along the Line Of the Decorative
Arts--A New Pottery from a South.
ern colleee-Handmade Metal Work
Well Paid.
In an uptown store devoted to art
crafts, in which everything is hand
made and each piece of work is cred
tied to tho maker, like paintings in an
! art store. it is interesting to see how
| the work of women is developing
along the line of the decorative arts.
1T is not strange" said the proprie-
| tor 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 pro-
duced some Of the finest work in
America, is an example. Here and
there women. finding that they could
make salable 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 invented and developed by
woman Now there is another woman,
former worker in the lockwood
potterieS, who is making the only por-
celain in America, except the product
of one New Jersey plant.
"She has little kiln out in her back
yard in Cincinnati, where she produces
from 10 to 20 pieces month, and
she deserves great credit for the per-
severance and ability with which she
has developed true porcelain.
THE credit for the most distinctive
contribution of the South to the art
life of America must also be given to
woman. A new pottery is now COM
ing up from New Orleans, from the
college for young women founded and
endowed by Sophie Newcomb, which is
pronounced the most distinctively In
digenous ware yet produced in Amer
lea
1T seems to possess no suggestion
whatever of the older wares of Europe
and Asia. and the distinctive flora of
the south, like the cotton plant and SUI
gar cane have been utilized as sugges-
tons 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 manage
ment Of the art department of the col
lege, and there the graduates of the
course were employed. AS a result,
many 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 in America to make pottery.
She began soon after the Centennial.
This odd black ware. on the con.
trary, Is one of the latest develop i
ments in unique guild of women. Z
This guild is made up of set of wom-
en- who studied art under well known
painter.
"At the conclusion Of their course
they consulted together and decided
chat it 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 con.
sent to submit to few requirements.
The first was for each to select ma.
terial, clay, wood or something else.
and without any preliminary instruc-
ton learn to handle it herself. Then
they were to go through a thorough
course of study from the best stand
ards, after which they were to let
their originality crop out as it would.
"They have all become art crafts
men of high order. This black pot
terry, which in it's glaze and finish re-
minds you of some of the Pueblo In ,
dian pottery, is the work of two men,
bers, mother and daughter.
"Do you see these two exquisite
bronze belt buckles. one with q
Swastika design, ornamented with red
coral. and the other made of two little
Greek figures, with a bloodstone in the
centre? Those buckles cost $25
apiece, and there is not another like
either in the world. The maker cast