DISCOVERING TALENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 153, 30 June 1934, Page 17

DISCOVERING TALENT.

CLUBS FOR UNEMPLOYED. Social centres and clubs for tho unemployed have done some of their most useful work in Lancashire in discovering new ways in which hidden talent can bo used. One man in ail East Lancashire centre, says a writer in England, who had been a weaver of extremely line cloth, was given some old gramophone records, and it was suggested that he should melt them down and make something out of the wax. He modelled with his hands two vases of fine ehupe, and while the wax was plastic worked in an all-over pattern. He at once felt that he was in the genuine line of potters, and the two vases look extremely well. Photography, too, has awakened a good deal of appreciation of beauty. One man was given a well-taken photograph of a woman sitting Jit the doorway of. an old cottage with plenty of flowers and treets, and asked to colour it. Ho had not handled colours in such a way before, but after two attempts produced <i good and well-modulated picture. Another was encouraged to. try his hand iit enlarging in a dark room. The picture was of a spray of blackberries, but it enlarged well. Tlie making of email chaire for children, out of old pieces of wood for the frames and cane iibre for the scats, ha? been an attractive occupation. Upholstery lias been a more ambitious scheme for some men. One of the most popular sidelines is lamp shades. They give an opportunity to invent your own eliape and style and colour, and there is, an art in sewing the crackling parchment. One man did three pelt sketches of a country scene. Each attempt wae better than tho last.