BEAUTY WEAVERS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1889, 18 October 1913, Page 11

BEAUTY WEAVERS.

LACE-MAKERS OF AMERICA. That th» women of. America, as well as the women of Ireland and the . Continent, can make laco is being demonstrated' every day by an enthusiastic group of fifty women in the town .of Tivoh, on tho Hudson, states the New York "Evening Post." They are the working members of tho St. Sylvia Cottage Industry, conducted under tho auspicos of tho Catholic Sisters of Mt. St. Vincent, and developing rapidly under the tutelage of Mrs. Geraldyn Redmond. ' Lace and the making of laco have, since the fourteenth century, been both tho joy and tho especial work of woman, offering as its manufacture does, opportunity for creative skill in its delicate beauty, inwoven with the personality of the maker. Lace seems the tangible form of a woman's fancies, one of the most personal products of her making. Before the fourteenth century the thoughts and skill of women must have been shaping themselves towards this tho essentially feminine art. Did not Eve herself see possible patterns in the mosses, surprise half-hiaden hints for designs in the stirring leaves of trees and blades .of grasses? Did she long, jusj; a little, for material with which to shape her firßt idea of beauty into something soft and filmy P That Eve had her lace-longing may be deduced from just one thing—she wag a woman. Kinds of Laces. Women of probably every country of Europe have been making laces for the last five or six centurics, from the time of the original, exquisite point-lace to the present day Honiton and Irish or Limerick, and all the different varieties

whioh hkve sprung from>the rare and beautiful old point-lace. But laceß of all kinds may bo assigned to two great branches —the guipure, or point-laca, and the pillow-lace branch. Guipure is all true needle-work lace— rose-point, Venetian point, Portuguese point, point d'Alencon, and Brusselspoint. The point of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the most beautiful and truly artistic, for the worker and the designer , wore ono and the same. Germany claims for itself, and for Barbara TJttman, of St. Annaberg, Saxony, the distinction of having made tho first • pillow-lace, in the sixteenth century.' Many familiar names are found here, > among the laces for the working of whose patterns a pillow is used: Valenciennes, Dutch, Merchlin, Saxony, Brussels, Spanish, Lisle, Limerick, Buckinghamshire, and Zfoniton. _ , American women have, been doing practically nothing in this _ great woman's art; have had no part in the astonishing and beautiful work done by lace-makers. St. Sylvia's Cottage Industry is for this reason a delight and an innovation. Fifty Working Membors. At present there are about fifty working members, who make Irish lace, Filet lace, drawn-work, Italian cutwork, French embroidery, and imitation. Also there are tiyo classes this summer, in Fronch embroidery and imitation, lie most interesting thing about the workers in the industry is their common claim to Americanism: they are the women and girls of New York, who give either the greater part of . their time or thoir spare moments to the work. They are thoroughly appreciative of the significance and value of the work, and are devoted to the Cottage Industry. Financially, the Cottage Industry is a sucSess. The private sales which are held about three times a year bring immediate responses from purchasers, three thousand dollars having beon made at a sale last Deceniber. . Other sales have been held at Manchester, Mass., at Lenox, in the Berkshires, at hotels in the White Mountains, and at other summer-home towns. All .the money which the lace brings goes directly for tho payment of tho workers, and for the enlargement of the industry.