Sample mounting, novelty work, jewelry and silverware case making, lampshade and candleshade making.
Trades and Wages
Sample mounting is pasting or gluing samples of all kinds of material on cards or in books to be used by salesmen in selling goods. New York is a center for this class of work. It gives year-round employment to many girls, and offers wages from $5 to $15 a week. The simpler lines of sample mounting can be learned by almost any girl. A bright student can learn this trade in six months.
Novelty work is the covering and lining of cases and boxes with different materials. Girls can earn from $5 to $18 a week, and can learn the trade in from eight months to a year.
In jewelry and silverware case making the girls are taught both to cover and line up the cases; they earn from $5 to $15 a week. It takes from eight months to a year to learn this trade.
Lampshade and candleshade making: A short course is offered to good sewers who wish to learn a line of work that will give them employment during November, December, and January, which is the busy season in this occupation. Girls can earn from $1 to $2 a day. It is a very good course for millinery workers, as the work is similar and therefore easily learned, and the slack time in millinery is the busy time in this trade.
Course of Work
All pupils entering the Novelty Department take a short course in sample mounting to learn the use of paste and glue. Some are advanced soon to the novelty work, while others continue in sample mounting, taking up a greater variety of work along that line. Those entering for lamp and candle shade making do not take the sample mounting, but come from the millinery or sewing classes, where they have had some training with the needle.
Interrelation with Academic and Art Work
In the academic classes the girls are drilled in measurements and have problems estimating the cost of materials and labor. Their discussions pertain to actual processes and materials used in the classes of the Novelty Department.