The Arts and Crafts in New York 
the Busches began to work in metal. Hav¬ 
ing torn down an old tank from the top floor 
of the house, the sheets of old copper with 
which it was lined were placed temporarily 
against the wall of their studio. Attracted 
by the colors it possessed, Mr. Busch took 
up a sheet of copper, quickly sketched in 
outlines of flowers, and with a nail and ham¬ 
mer began his first attempt at repousse work, 
followed by experiments in beaten copper. 
Encouraged by the success of the first at¬ 
tempts, they took up the art seriously and de¬ 
veloped it, and other branches of hand-craft. 
Some of Miss Ellen Starr’s specimens of 
bookbinding showed a notable degree of 
proficiency in the gold tooling on the binding 
and the quality of the leather. Another 
artist who represented most faithfully this 
beautiful craft, was Air. Ralph Randolph 
Adams. Work boxes, glove boxes and fire¬ 
wood boxes, were cleverly carved by members 
of the Y. W. C. A., New York. 
Carving was also sent from Hull House, 
Chicago. The Chicago Arts and Crafts So¬ 
ciety is the oldest society of this kind in 
America, and was organized at Hull House 
in 1897. The shops connected with the Hull 
House Labor Museum are of much importance 
as a centre of practical handicraft. They are 
occupied by active workers in bookbinding, 
woodwork, metalwork and pottery, and 
classes are held in them for various crafts, 
including lace making, spinning and weaving, 
which is done by Irish and Italian women 
living in the neighborhood. 
A group of tables and chairs made by Mr. 
Sillyman, of Staten Island, were quite out of 
the ordinary; the workmanship and finish 
of the wood being especially good. The 
furniture suggested the Colonial more than 
that generally made by Arts and Crafts 
Societies. 
I was sorry not to see more pulled rugs 
exhibited; what few there were, however, 
were good examples. Some of these came 
from Cranberry Island, where is one of the 
various rug making industries which have 
grown out of Mrs. Helen Albee’s pioneer 
efforts in New Hampshire. It was estab¬ 
lished among the fishermen’s wives on the 
Cranberry Isles opposite Northeast Harbor, 
Me., and is the means of providing these 
women with ready money, and gives them 
occupation during the winter months. The 
industry was started by some New York 
women who had summer homes in the 
neighborhood; they provided a designer and 
teacher, who taught improvements on the 
old way of making the rugs and the process 
of dyeing to enable them to have beautiful 
and permanent coloring for the rugs. 
These rugs bring large prices, selling from 
$7.00 to $32.00 each. One of the rugs ex¬ 
hibited had a butter-colored centre with a 
border of conventional flowers, differing from 
other pulled rugs which are usually Oriental 
in design, or follow the Indian motifs which 
seem peculiarly suited to them. 
Miss Amy Mali Hicks showed several 
pieces of batik, curtains, table covers and 
pillow covers in cottons; she blends blues 
and greens in a most fascinating way. 
Batik is an old Hindostan industry several 
centuries old. Most of us are familiar with 
the blurred, wrinkled effect of Javanese 
prints, which are dyed by the native women; 
the modern batik is done on somewhat 
similar lines. Miss Hicks also exhibited 
some good examples of stencilling. One of 
the most beautiful pieces of stencilling was 
done by Charlotte Busch; the colors were 
brown on red; a charming effect was pro¬ 
duced by stencilling the curtains a second 
time with gold. A bird motif was used, 
treated in a Japanese way. Another curtain 
of green velour was stencilled in two shades 
of blue by the same artist, and showed the 
wonderful possibilities in stencilled fabrics. 
