ARTS AND CRAFTS DISPLAY

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28088, 2 October 1956, Page 2

ARTS AND CRAFTS DISPLAY

EXHIBITION AT WOMEN’S CLUB Middle-aged and elderly women who realise they have time on their hands, after a busy life of bringing up their families, often seek a creative outlet in something to do with their minds and hands. Many of them, who have had no previous training, find they have ability they had not been aware of in their younger days and derive great pleasure from new-found hobbies. An example of this was seen at the arts and crafts display held at the Canterbury Women’s Club, which was officially opened by Mrs V. Elsom. yesterday. In the arts, basket-making and photographic sections, may exhibits by women who wer£ comparatively new to the work and no longer young in years, showed remarkable skill. The art display was arranged mainly in colour groups, which expressed the exhibitors’ taste in tonal combinations. Painting on wood was effectively carried out on trays, trinket boies. table mats and wall plaques and was French polished or lacquered to give the finished product a gleam. Fire screens and bedroom tidies were on show as well as water colour paintings, floral miniatures and dimpled glass bottles painted in floral designs for lampshade bases. Many of the shopping baskets were as decorative as they were useful, with their coloured plastic linings and clusters of raffia crocheted flowers on the outside. Baskets for floral arrangements, for troughs and posy bowls, for picnic tea flasks and even for logs of wood had been made by other members. The photographic circle has only been in existence for a few months, but already many of the women have produced good work with little experience behind a camera. Studies and portraits in black and white, some hand-tinted in colours, were featured. To augment members’ own efforts several interesting old prints were shown in this section. There was an enlarged photograph of a family at a river, taken somewhere on the West Coast in 1889, and several old family photographs taken last century. One of these, printed on glass, was of a mother and daughter and could be 100 years old. A display of pottery, glazed in effective colours to blend with contemporary furnishings, included a cigarette box and ash tray to match, dishes, little bowls and jugs. This was the work of a guest exhibitor.