FOREWORD A TRUE national popular art-shaped by the necessities and colored by the dreams of a whole people is a deeply touching and a very precious thing. We in America are a young nation, but there have been years enough for a true national popular art to grow up among us, to develop characteristic forms of beauty, to flourish greatly, to languish, and finally to be revived. There is now no danger that it will ever become a lost art. The following pages are dedicated in loving gratitude to the unnamed artists of Americas early day, and are offered to the new craftsmen of Americas great present in the hope of adding a little to the general appreciation of a fine and a beautiful thing.....

This book features the original sample collection and handwritten drafts of the talented, early 20th century weaver, Bertha Gray Hayes of Providence, Rhode Island. She designed and wove miniature overshot patterns for four-harness looms that are creative and unique. The book contains color reproductions of 72 original sample cards and 20 recently discovered patterns, many shown with a picture of the woven sample, and each with computer-generated drawdowns and drafting patterns. Her designs are unique in their asymmetry and personal in her use of name drafting to create the designs. Bertha Hayes attended the first nine National Conferences of American Handweavers (1938-1946). She learned to weave by herself through the Shuttle-Craft home course and was a charter member of the Shuttle-Craft Guild, and authored articles on weaving.

This antiquarian book contains a detailed treatise on American hand-weaving, being an account of the rise, development, eclipse, and modern revival of a national popular art together with information of interest and value to collectors, technical notes for the use of weaver, and a large collection of historical patterns. This comprehensive yet accessible guide will be of considerable value to those with an interest in weaving and its history, and it would make for a great addition to collections of allied literature. The chapters of this book include: Origins and Development, The Scope of this Book, Beginner's Problems, Design of the Fabric, Choice of Pattern and Color, Setting up the Loom, The Tie-Up, Weaving, The Plain Weave, The Twill Weave, etcetera. We are republishing this vintage book now in an affordable, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

This vintage book contains an extensive collection of patterns for hand-weaving, including designs from the John Landes Drawings in the Pennsylvania Museum, with drafts and notes by Mary Meigs Atwater. This catalogue of patterns will be of considerable utility to those with a keen interest in hand-weaving, and would make for a worthy addition to collections of related literature. Mary Meigs Atwater was an extremely important figure in the revitalisation of hand-weaving in the early twentieth century, and is often described as the ‘Dean of American Hand-Weaving'. Many antiquarian books such as this are increasingly rare and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this vintage book now in an affordable, modern edition complete with a new prefatory biography of the author.