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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



September, 1908 



Raffia in the Normal School 



By Mary H. Northend 

 Photographs by the Author 



IRST of the many arts and crafts societies 

 which have of late sprung into evidence was 

 the Deerfield Society of the quaint old 

 Massachusetts town of that name. From 

 generation to generation there had been 

 handed down in Deerfield homes the blue 

 and white hand-woven counterpanes, table 

 covers and the many pieces of handiwork which the mothers 

 of the settlement delighted in, and 

 leading women of the quaint old place 

 who were well read and traveled, and 

 who understood the value of really 

 good work along this line, resolved to 

 found the pioneer society in arts and 

 crafts. Other societies have since taken 

 up their ideas and worked them out, 

 spreading the movement from town to 

 town, and adding fresh accomplish- 

 ments to the list of arts which origin- 

 ally occupied the members. 



As it was the first to take up the 

 work of reviving the old arts and 

 crafts, the Deerfield Society also was 

 the first to seriously consider adding 

 basket making. Mexican women had 

 already gained well deserved success in 

 this line, which made it seem impossible 

 to compete with them successfully, but 

 the ladies of the Deerfield Society in- 

 vented new shapes and uses for the 

 raffia which gradually won them recog- 

 nition. The greatest step gained in their work was when the 

 Salem and the Hyannis Normal Schools took up the work, 

 instructing the children in the use of the raffia and teaching 

 them all the patterns which the childish minds could master. 

 From that moment the success of raffia as one of the arts 

 and crafts likely to stand the test of years was assured. The 

 variety of articles which the children make vary from table 

 mats and inkstands, to dolls' hats, ladies' shade hats, mats 



Kindergartners Making Sofa Pillows 



and rugs, baskets, cushions, and many other articles both use- 

 ful and ornamental. 



The raffia is not a reed, but a palm which, as stated, grows 

 in the swamps of Madagascar. It is torn into strips, braided 

 and sent to the United States uncolored, many of the dealers 

 dying it themselves, although others sell it to their customers 

 in its natural state, who may dye it in shades of their own 

 selection. For this work either vegetable or aniline dyes are 

 used, the former giving softer and 

 more artistic shades, and are most fre- 

 quently used. This part of the work is 

 by no means the least fascinating, for 

 one learns to gather the flowers and 

 roots which will produce the desirable 

 shades and to prepare them for use. It 

 is a difficult thing to do, as the dye must 

 never be brought to a boil, although it 

 must be kept at a boiling temperature 

 for a certain length of time, else the ma- 

 terial will either burn or rot. The beau- 

 tiful purple iris will yield a lovely pur- 

 ple coloring; the bark of the white 

 birch, gray; the Highland alder, 

 brown; sumach, red; dried leaves of the 

 appletree, yellow; and logwood and 

 fustic, one part of the latter to five 

 times of the amount of the former gives 

 a good black if the raw material is kept 

 in the kettle from fifteen to twenty 

 minutes. 



There are many kinds of weaves used 

 for the raffia work, the easiest of which is no doubt the kind 

 known as the Lazy Squaw. The raffia for this style is 

 wrapped several times around the reed before the longer and 

 harder stitch is taken. Then there is the bird cage weave, 

 which may be either fine or coarse in structure with open 

 mesh or with rows close together. Diagonal weaving, which 

 is pretty, consists of passing over two or more bands of reeds 

 at each half turn and weaving the next round those not in- 





Weaving a Sofa Pillow on Frame 



A Raffia Bag 



A Collection of Raffia 



