WOMEN AND HANDCRAFTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17783, 1 March 1926, Page 9

WOMEN AND HANDCRAFTS.

A recent exhibition of applied arts and handcrafts afforded an excellent opportunity for women who are interested in those subjects to gain knowledge on various points, and possibly to select a special line for themselves. There is. for instance, quite a flourishing hand-loom industry in existence among cultured women. Lessons can be obtained in spinning, weaving and rug-making, and some of the finished fabrics, when vegetable-dved, are verybeautiful. They find a ready sale and yield a good profit to the manufacturers. This art might be considered by way of being a reversion to the olden days rather than a step forward; but perhaps it may be a fair summary to say that it is a step in the right direction for the skilled woman worker.

Hand-painted buttons, original in design, offer another opportunity for the artistic woman. People are prepared to pay- well for these trifles, which rank almost with jewellery, and of course in their train follow handpainted brooches, ear-rings, and all kinds of things of a similar nature. Clebo-Chelsea pottery models of oldworld cottages and gardens give scope for the woman modeller. The specimens exhibited were very beautiful productions, with every detail perfect. Orders were taken for the modelling of individual houses—an idea which appeals to people with sufficient money' for luxuries of this kind. In any case it w'ould be a very permanent record of a home and could quite easily acquire a sentimental value in a family. Another artist was making electriclight standards, book-rests, floral sunshade tops, and even carved and painted ear-rings and pendants in ornamental wood carving; while yet another was doing a flourishing book binding business with marbled papers. Tooled leather work, from which can be fashioned endless articles in the way of writing cases, book-covers, handbags. photo frames, etc., is more generally known as an artistic woman's occupation ; so also is hand-wrought jewellery. This latter occupation has made great strides, and one woman was exhibiting an array of really beautiful pendants, brooches and rings in Chinese jade, opals, amber, chalcedony, amethysts, etc.

Beaten pewter work and Chinese lacquer also offer very fascinating occupations for the man}' women who are seeking an unusual and interesting outlet for their energies.