Folly Cove Designers Catalog (Fourth Edition)

Published by the Cape Ann Museum

Softcover, 61 pages

The Folly Cove Designers Catalog was originally printed in 1996 in conjunction with a special exhibition held at the Cape Ann Museum. This fourth re-issue incorporates updated information, previously unpublished designs, a selection of full color images and an updated index.

The Folly Cove Designers, a group of designer-craftsmen who worked together from 1938 to 1969, produced carefully wrought designs cut into linoleum blocks and printed (primarily) on fabric. Their common interest was in producing solid designs and in good craftsmanship. The group was composed almost entirely of women, most being residents of Cape Ann and a majority having no artistic training prior to becoming involved in the group. They worked under the leadership of Virginia Lee Burton Demetrios, who devised a design course which she offered to her friends and neighbors in the Folly Cove neighborhood. Participants were urged by Demetrios to look to their surroundings for inspiration, to draw "what they knew" and to sketch their subjects over and over again until they made them their own.

Copyright 1996 Cape Ann Museum, reprinted in 2017