Show OUTCAST decorative ARS I 1 leather ileather work and papier mache stenciling anil and other mechanical there are certainly truly honest and original decorative arts which so far as general appreciation is concerned particularly ticul arly that of amateurs might as a well be called lost or sham eliam leather work was till very recently one of these I 1 have lave heard a clever woman speak of it with contempt as a mere imitation of wood carving which at best produced only trumpery leai lea es and fl flowers overs and 41 she knew all about it but in fact she knew next to bothin nothing 0 about it and much less of cuir bu balli and stamped work papier mache is another of these outcasts which are condemned by fashion and art as lacking in truth simply because very few are acquainted with ith its remarkably varied forms or capacity A third is stenciling which is very little practiced save by workmen principally because it ranks as a merely mechanical method of ornamentation orria all and d such as is quite unworthy tile attention n of tile painters of flowers or mir mirrors or of aqua relles which as regards any ideal are perhaps perli aps not orie one whit beyond berlin wool work the reader alio v ho lias has ever seen a dozen average pupils under a third rate teacher all painting tret lier with the idea in common of simply attained attaining a uniform and identical manner of me mere re execution will agree v with lilt me when I 1 say that eliat it iau quite as 15 much mere fancy work as the making of wax or wax coral baskets now it is characteristic of this age that as regards the amateur it is substituting sti the minor arts for mere fancy work such feeble painters as of alem I 1 have spoken who attempt in vain some mere imitation of higher art simply because they have lave riot not gone through h such a preparatory training as the minor arts ans in a great measure supply would find it impossible to produce a good vigorous 00 piece of stenciling be huse they would be deficient in the eye for effect and the peculiar inventive power which ouch work demands and develops art journal |