Norwich bulletin., 1920-11-10
ORIENTAL EVENING BY
 ART STUDENTS ASSOCIATION

The Norwich Art Students association
 enjoyed a delightful evening Monday at
 Slater hall, the programme being in charge of Miss Mabel F. Webb and Miss
 Della D. Leavens. The walls of the room
 were tastefully. hung with textiles from
 the Orient gathered exclusively from
 Norwich homes, together with an exhibi- ton of modern textiles, the design of
 which were purely Oriental, the purpose being to show the value of such motif in present day fabrics.
 Miss Leavens in the rich costume of a Chinese nobleman's wife, gave an inter esting talk on ''Weaving the Orient Into
 American Art" She said in part:
 The art of weaving is one of the great arts which nature by means of instinct
 or the initiative faculty has taught man.
 kind. The craft is of such great antiqui-
 ty we can find out nothing of it's origin. Weaving on a loom was practiced in the
 most primitive ages We find evidences of it in co1tntries so widely separated that they could have had no intercourse,
 but each evolved the art for itself In Egypt we find depicted on the wall of a tomb about 5000 B. C., a loom manipu- lated by women. Linen and cotton were , the only materials used in that country
 wool, as an animal product, being con
 sidered impura How many have pctur-
 ed in imagination the sumptuous rulers
 of the ancient Hebrews and Assyrians as dressed in sil, and satin? It is some thing of 9 shock to realize that even Sol 3 omon in all his glory was not arrayed in silk, because lsthe fame and trade of Sol- omon did not extend to China the only country that knew the art of rearing the silk worm in the period. Aristotle is the first to mention, silk in the west The
 gauges of Cos appear to have been the forerunners of our modern Georgettes So thin were they that Senaca says I be- hold silken garments, if garments they may be called, which are a protection neither to body nor for shame In the eighth century Spain was conquered by 1 the Saracens and silk culture began
 there. By the thirteenth it had found I it's way into Italy. About the seven
 teenth century France came to the fore
 and not until the eighteenth did British
 fabrics seriously compete with the
 French.
 A study of different periods in Europe demonstrates the long sustained influence
 of Oriental patterns The early sources
 for much of the ornament was from the
 sixth and seventh century schools of Per sian designers. Later came the Byzan- tine designers, working under the rule of
 of Roman and Graeco-Roman emperors. A typical plan of design in the construc- ton of their patterns consisted of circles
 or roundel-s repeated at regular intervals. In the ornamental treatment of the tree form all the eastern nations seem to have eXcelled, it having symbolic signif- . icance, such as the tree of life. In In- dia designs of floral and geonetrical : patterns were applied to cotton cloth by means of wood block printing the h. dian printer having a wonderful percep- rficI1 l borrowed many Indian patterns and the ? designs of the Paisley shawls were copies of the India cnes.
 Artistic standards the world over have been breaking down. Many are tho . causes, but conspicuous among them K D the ignorance Of the artist of the methods :, of production of his designs We have 4 seen how the European nations borrow . ed from the Orient and from each other taking what was good adapting it tC , itheir own needs, and adding to it iron . their own racial characteristics and tra ' ditions We too must build on the pas instead of trying to be what we call orig f inal. Originality is as much the powe f of intelligent tasteful interpretation ant = selection as of fresh creation. Bqrbanl does not originate plants; he develope them from old ones. So we must talk
 principles of design and apply them t e our modern needs instead of trying t t make new principles. Thus may we built V up American art"
 At the close of the talk the member @ and guests wereS invited to examine tn e exhibit The collection from India wa S. presided over by Mrs. Alexander H. Alb -t bolt in beautiful Hindu costume and in d cluded a woman's robe or sari blacl J. background with embroidered animal q and flowers loaned by Mrs John D. Hal IS a cape of red cashmere, brought fror IS India sixty years ago. from Mrs. Frederi r. w. Lester. a Nautch girls scarf wit l. tiny glass mirrors introduced as spangle
 from Miss Elizabeth Huntington, red si ie bridal veil or robe from Mrs. B. P. Bi l. shop India and Paisley shawls fro1 the Misses Gulliyer and curtain wit h the tree of life motif, from the Misse ts Lucas. Specimens of Japanese embroid
 cries were loaned by Mrs. Osias Dcdg