VENETIAN GLASS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 70, 15 December 1937, Page 14

VENETIAN GLASS

LOVELY OLD INDUSTRY Very old is Venice's tradition for producing lovely, delicate household adornments in glass. To the Island of Murano came the Venetian ladies of long ago to choose chandeliers, mirrors, goblets and dishes for their palaces. They drew their rich cloaks about them agairist the breeze as their gondolas cut across the narrow "channel dividing the glass-mak-ers' island from the rest of Venice. They liked both chandeliers and mirrors to be decorated with fragile colour - ed flowers, as though massed bouquets were to spring from the ceilings and walls of their salons. They chose shallow glass bowls to serve fruit in — bowls with handles formed like dolphins' heads or writhing fish. But they were restricted as to colours, for only three were known until recent glass history. They were Venetian red, deep green and a sort of mottled cream, in addition to clear glass, of course. Tourists' Choice. Nowadays, fashions in colour and form h"ve changed. In the great showrooms where some of the finest modern glass is on view, women tourists off the cruise ships wander, entranced, past entire luncheon and dinner sets of pale rose, aquamarine, delicate powder-blue . . . The manager of Venice's most famous concern says that people of each country have different tastes in glassware, and he can almost tell a woman's nationality from the exhibits which please her mostFrench and English women like pastel shades, but are i.iore attracted by form than colour. For them are the twisted wine-flagons, the flower-vases shaped like Greek urns, the fine copies of classic shapes. Germans and Czechs, on the other hand, with some Americans, prefer deeper colours, heavily gilt. Most lovely of all are the glass centre - pieces for table decoration in the modern manner. I saw one deep bowl of jadegreen glass out of which sprang three creamy arum lilies. Italian women "fall for" the glass sprays of jasmine, pearl-white against grey-green leaves, set on a round table mirror. But most popular for the English market, I am told, are the delicate woven baskets containing marvellously fashioned sprays of lily-of-the-valley, less exotic than jasmine, but more at home upon an English dinner-table. Millinery Tip. Bows and arrows are to the fore in millinery. The bows are of velvet or fur on felt hats, while the arrows are very long quills plucked into the required shape and arranged so that they appear to pierce a narrow brim or tall crown.

a contrasting colour, and, starting a1 the point of the dart, tack up through the perforations, leaving large loops oi thread both sides. Leave the cotton loose at the end, and snip the loops with sharp scissors as a blunt pair may draw the thread out. Unfold the material very gently, snipping the cotton in between as you go. The darts are then plainly marked with little pieces of thread, and ready to be pinned inlo position. The French Methed. Here is another little hint that may help you. Possibly you have often admired the neat flat little binding on French hand-made underclothes, and wondered why your binding does not look like that. Frenchwomen put their binding on double. Cut it the ordinary width and run it on doubled over, right side out. When you sew'it on the wrong side, you will find you need not tack it first but can just hem it down. This method gives much neater and firmer bindings and it is actually easier than the other way. Now for buttonholing. Are your buttonholes always firm and strong, or do they sometimes begin to fray after one or two washes? If they do, the reason is probably that you have done blanket stitch instead of buttonhole stitch. It is a very common mistake. For buttonhole stitch, working from left to right, put the needle in from the back, take the thread over the needle to the right, pass it underneath from right to left, and pull it firmly upwards. If you are working on double material, be sure to tack it firmly round before cutting, and stitch the corners together to prevent it from coming apart. Remember that the little touches give you away in dressmaking and if a small income is to provide smart clothes you cannot afford to be slipshod.