RERAMIC STUDIO 
241 
The needle must be heavy enough to carry the thread 
without strain and should be fitted with enough floss to 
equal in size the threads which compose the material (it is 
often necessary to use from six to twelve threads of the fine 
untwisted mercerized cottons). Too thin a thread gives a 
"meagre" effect most undesirable, a thick thread drawn 
over every second woof thread is more pleasing than a 
scanty thread drawn in more closely. Untwisted floss 
should be used if possible, the loosely twisted may be rolled 
in a clamp towel before using and partially untwisted in 
working. 
The prepared floss is now darned into the surface of 
the material, the needle passing under every fourth or fifth 
warp thread, the length of stitch may vary with the texture 
of the material; it is neither necessary nor desirable that 
each stitch be the same length, but each thread must follow 
the woof thread over which it lies. Work the masses first, 
back and forth on each (or every second) succeeding thread 
until finished (Fig. I). Use white or ecru for the flower 
motif, dark green for the flower stems and the lighter green 
for leaf forms and their stems, the dark green should be 
used for the couching of the hem also. When the masses 
Table runner by Mrs. Dorrance 
are done the upright lines may be drawn in on the warp if 
narrow. If the design is very large these lines may be 
darned across the thread in the same manner as the masses. 
Experiment alone will show when this may best be done. 
A word regarding colors may not be amiss. Many of 
the commercially dyed materials for needlework are harsh 
and crude in color. Most of these may be easily toned 
("saddened" the old time dyers said) by steeping them a 
short time in some vegetable dye of neutral color. A decoc- 
tion of walnut bark or husks may be used, or coffee even will 
soften certain reds and yellows. If one can color all the 
floss used with vegetable dyes a much more harmonious 
range of color is the result. Most of the vegetable dyes used 
in basketry, such as fustic, logwood, indigo or saffron are 
available and it is most interesting to experiment in dyeing 
one's own materials. A small bit of floss should be colored 
and allowed to dry before coloring a large quantity for the 
moist color changes much in drying. 
Bags — Miss Mary Evans Francis 
When the needlework is finished a thorough pressing 
is needed, this should be done through a damp cloth and 
with a very hot flat, and the material pressed until thor- 
oughly dry. This causes the floss to sink into the mesh of 
the fabric and seem structurally a part of it. The method 
of decoration described above may also be used on finer 
materials than those mentioned, (provided that the textile 
is loosely woven) and various belongings of dress and house- 
hold may be enriched by simple designs wrought with 
correspondingly finer floss. The peculiar field however for 
this simple needle rendering of design seems to be in the 
ornamentation of rough heavy homespuns which do not 
lend themselves kindly to other methods of decoration. 
& #> 
THE CRAFTS AT THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF CRAFTS- 
MEN EXHIBITION 
The exhibition of handicraft lately held in the galleries 
of the National Arts Club, of work done by craftsmen in 
America and other countries was certainly the largest and 
best yet held in New York. Considering that the Arts and 
Crafts movement in this country has only so recently been 
taken up with enthusiasm, and that many of the workers 
have had comparatively little real training, the result, 
accomplished is remarkable. On the other hand especially 
in the exhibition of jewelry, which was one of the largest 
sent in, there was much that was disappointing. A jewel 
is such a personal thing, it should be so carefully designed 
and so beautifully wrought, as to make it something that 
can be lived with, a perpetual joy. It is all very well to 
copy Barbaric jewelry, there is a great deal that is attrac- 
tive in it, but we are not Barbarians, seldom anything in 
our dress or environment harmonizes with heavy crude 
jewelry. Not that copying good old things or making 
adaptations of them is to be scorned, it is far better to 
carve a belt pin in a design copied from the Celtic as the 
two illustrated, or to adapt a well known scroll to the stone 
to be set, as in the platinum and diamond necklace, ex- 
hibited and made by Emily F. Peacock, than to personally 
conduct a bad design in so lasting a medium as metal. We 
cannot agree with the writer in the January Craftsman, 
who says that the result of such copying is the loss of any 
well defined standard, that might serve as a base for growth. 
We work out ourselves in our work naturally, so that if we 
are not capable of good designing, we cannot design, though 
we may have the feeling for good things that have been 
done before. 
Doing these good things must raise our standard, we 
must grow with them, — but, we do agree with the same 
