SUGGESTIONS FOR HANDICRAFT FUR NITURE WORK Simplicity and good workmanship formed the keynote of the old handicrafts. Whatsoever is made in the home workshop should possess these characteristics. The ornate and elaborate should find no place. The work of the scroll saw should be wanting, and the purely orna mental should be left severely alone. Whatever of beauty is found in the products of the home workshop should be an integral part of the thing made. By this we do not mean to say that a lack of beauty is to be desired. Far from it, for every effort should be made to build pieces that shall prove a source of mental pleasure to all who shall look upon them. Nor should we de pend upon mere chance to bring about pleasing results. Artistic and practical training should be combined; and, if to these is added individual interest, the result must be pleasing, and the process of making it likewise a source of great pleasure.
Speaking of the pleasure of doing, one who has never experienced the fascination which comes in the making of that which has a real and vital interest, has missed a valuable part of his life. The writer, when a boy, had occasion to reflect upon the utter abandon to which one may give himself to it to the exclusion of everything else. His father was given to the making of home furniture after work hours. As this was before the time of the electric light, the writer was required to hold the oil lamp so that the craftsman might the better see his work. Many were the nights when the hands of the clock would move around to eight, nine, and ten before the worker would realize the hour. To the one holding the lamp, the minutes were hours.
The value of a vital interest cannot be over estimated. People are beginning to realize it as never before. Our schools are being entirely reorganized, because school men are coming to see that interest is the indispensable basis of every method of education. No longer are the children driven to tasks that are distasteful, forced to perform them because it is thought that, like vile-tasting medicine, the viler and more disagreeable the more good there is to be derived. Rather, the pedagogue strives to make
the task so interesting that the child gains mental strength and knowledge without being conscious of it.
This great practical problem is not the prob lem of the schoolroom alone. It is the problem of the workers of the world. How often we see it exemplified in the carpentry craft—a foreman or contractor full to overflowing with interest and enthusiasm. The days are never long enough for him. While about him are men who act as weights to drag him down—"clock-watch ers," to whom the minutes are as hours. What makes this difference? A vital interest on the part of one, and a lack of it on the part of the others. If these suggestions can present some thing that shall serve to maintain or create that attitude of mind peculiar to the one who has a vital interest and a love for the thing he is doing, one of their chief aims will have been accomplished.
Of course there are tasks to be performed that are not pleasant. We do not mean to imply that because we should strive to be vitally in terested in all that we do, therefore, we should never do anything in which we are not vitally interested. Just as the child must be taught to do some things because they are for the best, so the craftsman must not expect to "lie down" should discouraging moments cause his interest to lessen. Interest, unless it becomes an all absorbing passion, will need coaxing—and often a little forcing—to make it assume its proper place.
Referring to the accompanying drawings, in Fig. 121 is shown some kitchen furniture of plain design—a table and a woodbox. The skilled craftsman will know from looking at the sketches the technical construction. The ama teur will find it necessary to do some investigat ing of pieces of furniture to which he may have access.