LADIES' COLUMN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 27, 1 February 1908, Page 11

LADIES' COLUMN.

THE SCHOOL OF "WOOD-CARVING. The revival of a craft to be of real service in modern life is not tho easy matter that enthusiastic amateurs nrc apt to think. The School of Art Wccd-carv-ing is strhing to make the art of tho wood-carver a living and genuine industry, and not an amu6emeut for the amateur, not rrfn unpractical eccentricity but a useful skill. The exhibition of students' work in the Exhibition-road, South Kensington (tay.3 a Lcndon paper) is proof of the soundness of tho courbo of teaching The thrco years' course makes, a professional wood-carver. Tho student is competent to do his part in, any scheme of decoration, not only with exactitude but also with inrellig&nce, executing from knowledge what ifi es&ential to the style of the design. If, bebides semiring intelligent skill, the student develops aptitude for design, tJi or© is further f-copo for his art. But tho individual ci\ift?nian has to make his own way in woodcarving as in piery other art. Thb training at South Kenbington enstfres tba earnest student skill to use any opportunity — tho fairly certain and serviceable chauco of working for one of the great firms of dccoratorß, or the possible chanco of individual creation. Tho school is tho best hope of a future for English wood-carving, once so splendid a craft. An increase of interest in the admirable work done by the school would jiako that hope more secure and aid an institution that cannot expect to be selfsupporting while it is working for the true re-establuhracnt of the art of woodcarving, not its popularisation as a kind of fancy work.