International studio (60.1916/1917)

The National Society of Craftsmen

brace all the people.” And Mrs. Armfield told
how she had been impressed by the efforts to
popularize art in this country as shown in our
Women’s Clubs, in the linking up of our muse-
ums with our public-school instruction, and in our
National Federation, with its lectures and travel-
ling exhibits.
During the whole period of their life as artists
and decorators, the Armfields have felt a special
interest in developing the art of embroidery, for
they believe that through the medium of such
handwork the largest number of people can find
aesthetic expression. To quote her again:
“I have talked with some of the officers of
your great silk-thread manufactories and have
been shown samples of threads made by various
American companies. To my delight and sur-
prise I find that American threads rank with the
best in the world. Their texture is good, theix
colours are harmonious and they are durable. It
is true that in the main they are more expensive
than foreign silks, but what American woman
objects to paying a few cents more for a really
beautiful and durable skein of silk? As to the
dye limitations of which we hear so much, I find
the varieties of colours even now are sufficient.
The real artist is spurred on to his best effort by
a slight limitation and his inventive faculty is
sharpened thereby. In embroidering, I first ax-
range my palette of colours, selecting those that
harmonize with each other and that are appro-
priate to my design. Then I know that no mat-
ter how combined, the result will be good.” •
On the other hand, Mrs. Armfield finds the
designs used in American embroideries to be,
almost without exception, trivial and stereotyped.
She holds, and rightly, that nothing good can be
done in embroidery without a basic knowledge
of design, and in this connection she spoke of the
limitation the American decorator puts upon
himself in paying an almost exclusive attention
to the Colonial period of our history.
“Your decorators are prone to forget that all
the culture of the sixteenth century found repre-
sentation in the early colonization of this coun-
try. Educated people settled here who brought
with them the artistic traditions of northern and
southern Europe, and therefore the inexhaustible
treasure house of this period is yours to draw
upon by right of inheritance. It is true that
some of the old pieces of embroidery found in
our museums, and supposed to be a result of

these inspirations, are not as good as others of
the same period. This is because they were
planned without enthusiasm and executed me-
chanically. The artist in embroidery must first
saturate herself with the principles of traditional
decoration and then must forget it all, and pro-
ceed to evolve something with joy and energy
expressing hex- own personality.”
The Armfields have assuredly done this in their
own work, and it is this which makes it so pecu-
liarly charming. It is a revelation to see how
delightfully and effectively a story can be told
by the embroiderer’s needle. For instance, the
panels for the group of chairs, illustrating the
Biblical texts: “For lo, the winter has past, the
rain is over and gone,” “The time of the singing
of birds is come,” “The fig-tree putteth forth her
green figs,” “The vines with the tender grape
give a good smell.” These quaint and lovely
pieces were done for Airs. Armfield’s own home
and were the outcome of her joy and surprise
when she first saw the vines and fig-trees of
Italy—a memorable moment, as every trav-
eller knows. And there is another panel which
recounts the aromatic joys of her herb plot.
It would seem that this is really the way to
make needlework interesting to the young, for it
becomes something living when invested with
these motives. The “repeat” is to be discarded,
because machinery can achieve it; the work is
to be vitalized with a meaning, and the stitches
are to be adapted to the exigencies of the sub-
ject and are to express their characteristics.
This idea is thoroughly practical, as can be seen
by an examination of Mrs. Armfield’s own pieces,
in which are to be found such a variety of stitches
and all so expressive.
It is gratifying to know that theories similar to
the Armfield’s have been put into practice by the
Woodward brothers in the needlework and pot-
tery departments of the Sophie Newcomb Col-
lege, some of whose products are to be seen in this
same exhibition, and it is probable that there is
no more vital crafts work in this country than
that done in this Louisiana college.
The Armfields are, above everything, inclusive.
They want this revival of the crafts to be shared
by everybody, and they hold that embroidery is
as much the work of male as of female. It is
likely they are right in this, for it was so in past
centuries, and many of our best male designers
of to-day wield the needle at will.

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