North Carolina State Library
Raleigh
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HAND
CRAFTS
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CAROLINA
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DEPARTMENT OF
CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
STATE OE NORTH CAROLINA
Foreword
Recognizing the important part that handicraft played in the
early development of this State, many of us have felt for some time
that we should show our appreciation to the few men and women
who are keeping the fruits of arts and crafts before the public.
We are living in a day of mass production, but machine products
are based upon hand patterns. Machinery and labor are merely
reproducers of what the craftsman originates.
Commerce and industries developing within our State at this
time are demanding more and more technically trained people.
We must meet the challenge to train our people not only in the
technology of mechanics but in craftsmanship that will move the
hand with the mind.
George R. Ross, Director
Department of Conservation and
Development
Committee on Handcraft:
Mrs. R. L. McMillan, Raleigh
Mrs. Joseph P. Campbell, Winston- Salem
Professor J. D. Paulson, Raleigh
Alexander Crane, New Bern
Thomas W. Morse, Raleigh
Our Heritage
Through the power of work divinely given to mankind comes
worldly Content,
Under guidance of one's brain, through the agency of one's hand,
with or without the blessedness of sight, every eternal masterpiece
has been created.
With the help and cooperation of others, handicraft tradition has
been passed down as a rich heritage from father to son, from
mother to daughter, from master to apprentice.
Under present economic conditions it is no longer necessary to
make everything by hand. Machinery can and should be used. But
industry and commerce depend on the craftsmen for patterns.
They draw on his inventive skill, his precision of detail and his
ability to develop and carry out a visual ideal by means of his
hands into a concrete form.
Through the process of one's hands one can benefit economically.
T h e process of creating something useful and artistic causes a rise
in self- esteem. This great healing art must be continued by both
private and public enterprise in order to derive the most we tan
( jut of ourselves and pass our knowledge on to others. It is of
benefit to the State to foster handicraft among its citizens. This
benefit is triple: artistic, educational and economic.
Alexander Crane
The Mountains
Craft pi the self- reliant mountaineers developed and preserved
during the last hall century lias burgeoned into a traditional folk
art.
Pioneers in this movement were the Misses Charlotte L. Yale and
Eleanor P. Vance of Tryon. Able continuers are Miss Clementine
Douglass of Asheville and Miss Lucy Morgan of Penland.
The Piedmont
Newly organized craft groups centering mainly in the cities
specialize on the educational and therapeutic aspect of the crafts.
A lew highly sophisticated craftsmen create original products of
great artistry.
The Winston- Salem Arts and Crafts Workshop under the recent
aegis of Mrs. Chester Marsh is an outstanding example.
The Coastal Plain
Handicrafts in the coastal area are as yet confined mainly to the
lew inheritors of the useful crafts continued for economic reasons.
Much groundwork is being done by home economic workers and
city recreational leaders to develop craft workshops and classes.
Pisgah Forest pottery.
Granny's hands.
Handcraft in the Mountains
With the advent of the twentieth century a handful of enterprising
lovers of craft started a movement to preserve the traditional
craft of the highlanders. Due to the energy of these people, the
now national handicraft movement was started. A market was
found for products made mainly in the mountain cabins, and the
tradition of country craft nobly preserved.
Transportation now so readily available brings the tourist curio
craft buyer straight into the regions where handmade products
abound. T h i s is the direct cause of the multitude of roadside craft
stands. Due to this the standard of living has been raised and the
once isolated craftsman now finds ready markets nearby for his
work.
With State encouragement of handcraft classes the quality and
the design of the work could be improved and better prices commanded.
As most of the materials used are native to the land a
double benefit would be assured.
Mountain forge at Burnsville, N. C.
The economic life of a State rises and falls only by the desire in
the individual to work. " All work and no play," an adage so true
as to be trite, takes on a new light when the handcraftsman
combines the work and the play.
As the work grows, so pass the hours in creation. T h e created object
may or may not bring direct economic gains but the unseen
results of moral and spiritual benefit earned are of far more
import than the monetary gains in the life of the individual and
hence of the State.
North Carolina is justly proud of its craftsmen, of their innate
desire to produce the useful and the beautiful. T h e State delights
in being able to exhibit to the tourist its native talent through
its citizens.
Through each observer of beauty the State's reputation is enhanced.
Iiy each purchase the State's economy is improved. Both
are necessary lor the State to develop fully.
Mrs. Buchanan weaving.
Whittling hands of John Hall.
Southern Pines handicraft store.
Mrs. Hilton— dollmaker. Vester Lowe— sculptor.
Girl Scouts art center.
Carver and Fiddler.
Pottery.
Ben Owen at potter's wheel.
" All who are concerned with the life and culture of America now
judge such handwork not only by the product itself, but by the
effect of the work on the producer and realize that these arts are
part of the great circle of the humanities."
A L L E N EATON.
From the lowliest useful object through to the most complex construction
built by man— a house— the student is taught to create
useful beauty. In the grade schools, in the high schools and in the
universities this should be the rule.
In the art of pottery we may be delighted with a glaze which
enhances the form, we may feel emotional about color; decoration
may please us sentimentally: But without excellent FORM
the pot lacks life. T h i s is the only craft that combines and uses the
lour elements: E A R T H as a body, W A T E R to help shape it,
A I R to dry it and FIRE to fuse it, each controlled by the hands of
the master potter.
At Jugtown Jacques Bnsbee rightly considered F O RM paramount
and bent all his efforts to see that the potters were constantly
aware of it. His opinions and teachings are being excellently continued
by Mrs. Busbee.
In the Piedmont
Handcraft classes are more than a hobby. T h e creating and carry*
ing out of a design is a satisfaction for the amateur as well as the
professional craftsman that cannot be measured in economic
terms.
The fun of working in groups, the stimulus of exchanging ideas
and the joy of seeing one of these develop into a concrete object
develops tremendous self- respect.
T h e growth of handicraft hobby classes in cities has increased
a thousandfold within the last decade. At Raleigh Mrs. R. L,
McMillan successfully conducts a morning group in the handcrafts
that give many pleasure. T h i s influence is spreading rapidly.
The pleasure of giving away or selling for profit a handmade
article is twofold; the satisfaction of the maker and the appreciation
ol the recipient. Such appreciation is made more poignant if
the process of design and the limitations of the material are more
clearly understood.
By means of a series of fairs and lectures with demonstration on
the spot of various crafts by able craftsmen, the various societies
are forwarding a market for goods wherein the consumer looks
lor quality in manufacture rather than quantity,
Blind boy caning chair.
Girl metalworker. Making Moravian Christmas cakes.
Net makers— white and Negro.
Home Demonstration work.
The Coastal Plain
With an abundance of native material on hand, with the hue of
nature and wildlife at their door, it is but natural that the craftsmen
turn to the rural type Of 11 alt. Net making, and crafts connected
with outdoor life are the most prevalent. This trend develops
under the guidance of the craftsmen into an unconscious
country craft- art.
The poorest economically may be the richest spiritually. It is
through their own talents that they become thus.
The fishermen make and mend their nets, the basket maker's work
is utilized by the farmer for gathering his harvests. T h e boatmaker
helps the fisherman.
Home Demonstration club women and 4- H club members, all
over the state, find time in their busy life on the farm to make
many useful and beautiful articles for the home, for gifts, and for
sale.
Emphasis has been placed on revival of the traits Using native
materials, as corn shuck articles, broom making, honeysuckle,
willow and pine needle baskets.
IT
The Handicapped
T h e State Schools for the Blind and Deaf realize the importance
of the hand ails.
In the training of the blind they are taught to adjust themselves
to daily life by a series of increasingly hard lessons in hand skill.
This enables them to move out into the sighted world. Of paramount
importance is the ability to use one's hands as one eyes.
By means of certain therapeutic crafts they arc taught step by
step almost all that the sighted take for granted.
T o see the surety of a blind graduate of these schools stepping out
into industry and commerce to earn his living is to renew faith
in human teaching.
Among the sighted deal the joy of handwork is the joy of play.
No longer are many hours idly spent for they have learned at
school that in their silent world the pleasure of creation is a great
compensation.
Commercial opportunities are shown them and trades are taught
where being deal is an advantage in many ways and where the
racket of machinery is no detriment to concentration and work.
T h e i r hobby is manual arts; their livelihood manual skill.
JViarl6'
A letter written for an illiterate man and sent to a lover of handcraft
tells this graphic story of economics:
" A man once sold me a cedar tree lor fifty cents. I could
have split it up into fence posts and made five dollars ( nit
of it:— but by whittling it up into different small ihings
I got fifty."
ft is estimated that in one dying community, where handcraft
was introduced ten years ago as a community project, eighteen
thousand dollars are now annually earned by people who " work
there in their own homes.
No accurate survey has been made of the householders, farm
women and city housewives who pride themselves on their home-cooking:
Many unusual recipes have been turned into dollar
producing businesses:— due to thrift, work and care. Attractively
packaged goodies account for many a child's education. The Home
Economics teachers at work all over the State lay the basis for an
interest in Handicraft. Many a craftsman, now economically
independent in his own home- shop, received his first stimulus of
creation from a home demonstration.
Baskets.
Corsages from Old Fields
1— Corsage of red galax leaves with ophiopogon foliage used as ribbon. This corsage
may be used after it is perfectly dry as well as when it is crisp and fresh. 2— Corsage
of green pine needles ( plaited) without any ribbon or decoration. 3— Corsage of
brown cotton bur from which all cotton has been taken— with two- toned green and
gold ribbon. 4— Corsage of gilded or silvered- pine needles ( for Christmas luncheon).
5— Corsage of brown cotton burs— with red satin ribbon. 6— Corsage of corn shucks—
with bronze and green ribbons. 7— Corsage of Paulownia seed pods— with chartreuse
ribbon. 8— Corsage of brown cotton burs and small seed pods— with harmonizing
two- toned ribbon. 9— Corsage of Paulownia seed pods— sprayed with just a suggestion
of gold paint ( this may be omitted). 10— Corsage of slightly- tinted corn shucks— with
gladiolus foliage used as ribbon. 11- Corsage of seed pods and dried buds— with
ribbon changed to match costume. 12— Corsage of green galax leaves— these are
equally lovely when crisp and fresh or when dried a beautiful grey green color.—
( Corsages shown above made by Weber McFarland of Louisburg).
