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Hand Weaving

Creator: Charles Campbell (author)
Date: April 1908
Publication: The Outlook for the Blind
Source: American Printing House for the Blind, Inc., M. C. Migel Library

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CHARLES F. F. CAMPBELL
Superintendent Industrial Department Massachusetts Commission for the Blind

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Rag carpet weaving has been carried on by the blind for many years. Hand weaving, such as is being done in the various Arts and Crafts centers, as an industry for the blind was first undertaken by the Massachusetts Association for the Blind in 1904. As agent of the Association I was endeavoring, among other things, to find some new collective industries for the blind. With the opening of the twentieth century a decided awakening in favor of hand-wrought articles has made itself manifest, as is evidenced by the formation of Arts and Crafts societies throughout the country. Hand-woven fabrics are encouraged by these societies, and after observing a sighted weaver embroidering on a hand loom I was confident that it warranted a trial by the blind; and when I learned that hand weaving was done by the blind in Sweden, the experiment seemed more desirable than ever.

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The Association started its first blind girl weaving are fabrics in July, 1904, and our first man weaving rugs of artistic color and design in October of the same year. We soon found that so far as the mechanical part of the work is concerned there is no question about the ability of the blind to weave. The real problem is not one of blindness, but rather to find whether there is a market sufficiently large for such work and whether it can be carried on at a reasonable cost. Appropriate designs are indispensable to the success of the work, and to secure these expert seeing supervision is required. It is interesting to note that several of the blind women have developed some very satisfactory patterns. Of course the colors are chosen for them and some help is given in making the best arrangement of the units, but the motives are entirely the creation of the blind weaver. The extent to which complicated designs can be worked out by the blind women after the pattern has been memorized is shown by the illustration of the "canoe" curtain which one of our seeing designers arranged for the Massachusetts Building at the Jamestown Exposition.

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The Massachusetts Commission is now carrying on the weaving started by the Association in its experiment station. The shops were only organized as shop units in the summer of 1907, and have not been maintained long enough to warrant any statement as to possible returns and operating expenses. Until the Commission has a maximum of blind operatives to a minimum of seeing supervision and the market has been thoroughly tested, no figures would be of value. That the blind can weave articles salable for their intrinsic merit is certain. In how far it can be made self-supporting is yet to be determined.

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MISS MARION CAMPBELL
Industrial Agent of the Cleveland Society for Promoting the Interests of the Blind

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WHEN I tell you that the work in hand weaving for the adult blind with which I have been connected is but little over a year old, you will not expect me to go deeply into a general discussion of its merits, but rather to tell you how it has been found a very pleasant, adaptable, and profitable occupation for the blind in our workshop in Cleveland, Ohio.

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The work with the adult blind began in Cleveland with a reading room, conducted one afternoon each week by the public library; to this reading circle was added an evening of social games and music. For this the library asked the cooperation of Goodrich Social Settlement, where a room was furnished, and a group of blind men and women gathered one evening each week.

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The discussions during these evenings frequently turned to the industrial opportunities for the blind, and the residents of the settlement began to feel the need for special industrial training for those of the adult blind who have become so after the period of school age, and for this, and other reasons, have had no trade training since blindness.

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Just at this time a visit to the Experiment Station of the Massachusetts Association for the Blind at Cambridge, and the artistic weaving in the shop conducted there, suggested a similar experiment for the summer in Cleveland.

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Goodrich House possessed two well-equipped looms; these, and the exclusive use of a large, airy room and my services as director, were readily offered by the trustees of the settlement.

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Mr. Campbell, at our solicitation, agreed to come on to Cleveland, help as to organize the school, and to recommend a teacher.

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The first pupil who applied had been a blacksmith previous to his blindness; on account of a nervous trouble his education as a child had been very limited, and during his several years of blindness he had had no occupation; having had, therefore, no training or education which might in any way be applicable in hand weaving, his progress may be considered a fair test of the adaptability of the work. After eight weeks of faithful work on a large carpet loom, learning the construction and mechanism of the loom, and to know when any part is not working in order, weaving plain and design rugs, this man was placed in a large carpet factory to operate a hand loom, making rugs from strips of old carpet; frequent reports from the foreman of the factory are substantial proof that such work for the blind is practicable.

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Other pupils were equally good types for a fair test of the work: one, a pupil of the music department in our state school, not finding opportunity to make profitable application of it, has proven one of the most exact and rapid at the loom.

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Perhaps the best test is found in the case of one of the pupils, a man employed in a large dry goods store as stock keeper previous to his blindness. This man came into the shop directly from the hospital, where he had undergone an unsuccessful operation for regaining his sight. After several weeks of practice with an old-time carpet loom, he asked to be allowed to warp and thread the harness and reed on his loom; with few mistakes he accomplished this, and has since continued to prepare his own loom for each new warp. After frequent requests from his friends to weave old rags, sewn for hit-and-miss pattern, he asked for the use of his loom for one month to try independent weaving, and distributed cards among his friends soliciting their patronage. An item in the newspaper brought him his first order; then a carpet cleaning establishment turned over all its orders to him, and the venture has resulted in steady orders and a nearly independent business eight months after entering the school.

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In speaking of the personnel of the school, I have assumed the transition from school to workshop. In order to show the development from an experimental school to a manufacturing workshop, let us return to the first plan for a three months' school for the adult blind. During this period there were five pupils, no one of whom was following a trade at the time of entering. Three additional looms were purchased, supplies bought -- largely on faith, as the venture depended entirely on subscriptions for its support a young woman was engaged as teacher, and we went to work to weave artistic and heavy rag tugs and fine linen and cotton scarfs and draperies, with good design and simple color combinations. Our friends were our first patrons, the newspapers our gratuitous advertisers. We found we had not overcome all the difficulties in equipping the school and starting its looms. We had to educate the public to the value of artistic hand work, and also to appreciate its apparent excessive cost in a large city where a woman's exchange had died an unregretted death and there exists no arts and crafts salesroom, no gift shop, and no art museum for the general display of arts and crafts products. At the end of the three months our sales had amounted to $150; our expenses had been $330, but we had on hand work for sale to the amount of $600, so that our venture was justified on a business basis in that our assets covered our liabilities.

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The Experimental School was opened the 12th of June, 1906. The second week in November a public meeting was called in the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce; reports of the summer experiment were read, and there was organized to carry on the work the Society for Promoting the Interests of the Blind in Cleveland, with a president, secretary, and treasurer, and representatives of the original institutions constituting its board of directors. The policy of this society is fourfold: to carry on through the public library the educational work in the various types for the blind, and the ticket bureau; through the Associated Charities to compile a census of the blind of the city; through the Visiting Nurse Association to investigate the opportunity for massage and similar occupations, and through the settlement to carry on the workshop for weaving and develop other industrial opportunities for the adult blind.

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Previous to the organization of the society the pupils upon being able to execute salable work were paid a nominal weekly wage, in most cases determined by sales; after the organization of the society our contributions were so generous that we were able to increase the equipment to eight looms, and the school was made a manufacturing workshop, with a scale of weekly wages based on the quality and amount of the work done.

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Each worker has, or finds, his own home, and is supported in it by his wages. The workers come to the shop alone from their homes, and in every way individual effort toward every form of activity, in spite of their blindness, is encouraged.

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To summarize as to the value and profit of hand weaving as an occupation for the blind:

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1. No part of the whole operation of weaving is impossible to the average blind person.

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2. A blind person may become so accurate in memorizing the design and so adept in the plain weaving as to earn a fair living wage.

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3. Weaving, as a mechanically repeated process, may, and usually does, become an occupation of large interest and pleasure to the worker, a blind person getting a distinct sense of pleasure from feeling the contour and texture of the design.

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4. As the value of any hand work as a permanent occupation must depend finally upon the demand in the market, it is essential to know that, in the estimation of those who have kept closely in touch with the movement for handicraft in various lines, the demand is steadily increasing for handmade articles, with a regularity which is not to be confused with the spasmodic fad for machine imitations of the same.

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Therefore, I recommend hand weaving, as I strongly believe not only in the doctrine of work, but in the doctrine of chosen work, and I feel that the problem of the blind is not alone one of occupation, but further, as with the seeing, one of finding interest and pleasure in occupation.