202 TKXTii.K Airr i\ kklaiiox to fokm and oknamknt. 



worked into the fabric by using colored filanieiits or parts, or it is 

 added to the surface of the completed object by means of pencils, 

 bnishes, and dies. Its employment in the latter manner is especially 

 convenient when com])lex ideouTa))hic or pictoi-ial subjects are to be 

 execnted. 



TEXTILE ORNAMENT. 



DEVELOPMENT OP A GEOJIETRIC SYSTEM OF DESIGN WITHIN THE ART. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Having made a brief study of form and color in the textile art, I 

 shall now present the great grouj) or family of phenomena whose 

 exclusive office is that of enhancing beauty. It will be necessary. 

 however, to present, besides those featuresof the art ])ro})('rly ex])ress- 

 iveof the esthetic culture of the i-ace, all those phenomcua that, being- 

 present in the art without man"s volition, tend to suggest decorative 

 conceptions and give shape to them. I shall show how the latter class 

 of features arise as a necessity of the art, how they gradually come 

 into notice and arc si'izcd u]jon by the esthetic faculty, ami how 

 under its guidance lln'v assist in the devel()]imcnt of a system of 

 ornament of woi-ld wide application. 



For convenience of treatment esthetic phenomena may be classed 

 as relieved and flat. Figures or patterns of a relievo nature arise 

 during construction as a result of the intersections and other more 

 complex relations — the bindings — of the warp and woof or of in- 

 serted or applied elements. Flat or surface features are manifested 

 in color, either in unison with or independent of the relieved details. 

 Such is the nature of the textile art that in its ordinary practice cer- 

 tain combinations of both classes of features go on as a necessity of 

 the art and wholly without reference to the desire of the artist or to 

 the effect of resultant patterns upon the eye. The character of such 

 figures depends upon the kind of construction and ujion the accidental 

 association of natural colors in construction. 



At some period of the practice of the art these peculiar, adventitious 

 surface characters began to attract attention and to be cherished for 

 the pleasure they gave ; what were at first adventitious features now 

 took on functions peculiar to themselves, for they were found to 

 gratify desires distinct from those cravings that arise directly from 

 lihysical wants. 



It is not to be supposed for a moment that the inception of esthetic 

 notions dates from this association of ideas of beauty with textile 

 characters. Long before textile objects of a high class were made, 

 ideas of an esthetic nature had been entertained by the mind. as. for 

 example, in connection with jjensonal adornment. The skin had 

 been painted, pendants i)lacpd abmit tlie neck, and bright fi'athers 

 set in tlie hair to euliaiice attractiveness, and it is ii..t difficult to 



