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People have been saying that to Mrs. Ganje for the last three years, ever since this young St. Paul matron began giving painting lessons in her home. And she always answers back: "You will be doing it—soon!"

Watching Mrs. Ganje paint an organdy cocktail napkin, or a child's pinafore, or a kitchen curtain, the process looks like a simple one; but when you try it you find the job is not quite as easy as it looks. Like any other worth-while hobby, fabric painting takes time to master. It is essential to learn before doing! Kay Ganje's fabric painting is unusual in that she employs an Oriental technique which she, herself, learned quite by accident.

GLANCING through the help wanted advertisements in a St. Paul newspaper one evening nearly three years ago, Kay Ganje noticed an advertisement for an artist, which stated "part time considered." Anything pertaining to art had always interested this young woman—even when she was a little girl she used to draw instead of playing with dolls! Mrs. Ganje had some spare time on her hands, so she answered the advertisement.

If a fortune-teller had told her at that time that within a few months she would be an instructor in painting, and also operate a profitable home business in art work with a woman she had never even met, Kay Ganje would have laughed and said—"Not me! I have a husband and family to look after."

But that is just what has happened. Today, Kay Ganje looks after her family; but she also does art work, in partnership with Mrs. Frances Hayes, that nets these two young women extra money for luxuries which they otherwise would not be able to enjoy.

"The astounding thing is," says Mrs. Ganje, "that each month we do more painting, yet still accomplish all our home duties and have leisure for fun, too. It's just a matter of learning how to use time. Not waste it!"

But to get back to that eventful advertisement. The job was painting organdy aprons for an apron manufacturing company and the work could be done at home. The aprons were painted with a different technique from any Mrs. Ganje had ever seen—it had a shadowy Oriental look. Kay Ganje was curious about the technique and upon questioning learned that the woman who had begun painting these aprons was taught by someone who had been instructed in the art in the Orient. Mrs. Ganje was quick to learn the new process. The more aprons she painted, the more fascinated she became.

"I began experimenting on other fabrics," relates Mrs. Ganje, "and found myself spending every spare moment with my paints and a piece of material."

ONE DAY her employer asked Mrs. Ganje to demonstrate the painting of the aprons at one of St. Paul's department stores. Many of the people who stopped to watch her paint asked if she would teach this particular technique. Among them was Mrs. Hayes, also of St. Paul, who was obviously keenly interested in this unusual type of painting. Fran Hayes had taught art in grade schools and done four other types of fabric painting but never achieved the results she wanted. The work Mrs. Ganje was doing seemed to be the answer to her needs.

So it was not surprising that Mrs. Ganje and Mrs. Hayes arranged to meet the following day for further discussion. Very soon after that meeting they worked out a set of lessons, using basic techniques for the various fabrics, and including those for painting flowers, birds, animals, fruit, etc. Together they organized classes in painting for hobby-minded people, and they are currently writing a book of instruction on their method of painting (no such book is now available). No sooner had these two women opened their homes to students, then neighbors asked for their hand-painted articles, friends talked about such items as their kitchen curtains with painted recipes scattered all over them, of their personalized ties, etc. One person told another and soon both Mrs. Ganje and Mrs. Hayes were selling all the things they could paint.

These two enterprising women have proved that a young mother need not confine her activity to cooking and child care alone. Much as they love their children and their husbands and their homes, they want to be an entity in themselves. With prices going up-up-up—what family today can't use more money?

"Besides," Mrs. Hayes adds, "just because you are a mother you don't have to smother your talents!"

WHEN ASKED about the equipment necessary to begin fabric painting either as a hobby or a profession, Mrs. Ganje came up with this encouraging bit of information: "Very little. In fact, your initial outlay need not exceed $3."

All you really need to get started on a project similar to that engaged in by Mrs. Ganje and Mrs. Hayes is six small tubes of artists oil paint (the same kind used for painting on canvas) in these basic colors: American vermilion, cobalt or ultramarine blue, chrome yellow, light or medium, ivory black, zinc white, burnt sienna.

You need two brushes—one flat stiff bristle brush with short bristles (No. 1 or No. 2), and one round sable water color brush (No. 2 or No. 3). The sable brush must come to a fine point for outlining and small details. Every artist needs a palette. But Mrs. Ganje is quick to state that you do not need to go out to buy one. A palette may be a coffee-can cover, a plate, a piece of glass, wax paper, anything on which you can mix paint. You do need a pinning board. But this, too, you can find around the house. It can be a piece of heavy cardboard cut out of a corrugated box. A few glass top tacks or common pins will secure your fabric to your board. Then, too, you'll want some white gasoline for thinning your paints and cleaning your brushes, and a paint rag. White gasoline may be purchased at your service station for under 10 cents a quart.

"You don't have to be a skilled artist to begin fabric painting," Mrs. Ganje points out. "About 98 per cent of our students turn out very satisfactory work by the time they have completed our basic course. You can copy your designs from magazines, wallpaper, from almost any picture! There are two points to keep in mind when doing this type of painting, though, without which I believe perfection cannot be achieved. First, your paint must be thinned to the proper consistency for the type of fabric on which you are working—about the consistency of coffee cream for thin material, heavier for heavier materials. Second, your brush must be blotted dry in order to achieve the brush stroke to give the Oriental effect which distinguishes this type of painting from all others."

In fabric painting it is important to paint from light to dark. "Put your lightest shade on first and shade in the darker," cautions Mrs. Hayes. "Highlights must be left from the lightest shade, instead of put in last as in other painting."

Mrs. Ganje goes on to explain: "To put a white highlight on after the design is painted, you would have to have the paint too thick and this would spoil the effect."

THE BASIC course given by these two young women consists of six lessons, during which the student is instructed in how to paint on organdy, linen, heavy cottons, silk, rayon, satin, and terry cloth. Enrolled as students are grandmothers as well as teen-agers, artists as well as non-professionals. At first, students paint from patterns supplied by either Mrs. Ganje or Mrs. Hayes; but during the course they learn how to get ideas, adapt them to their needs, and make their own patterns. Because all classes are conducted at home, the group is limited to ten students at each session.

Recently, Mrs. Ganje and Mrs. Hayes have added an advanced course to their curriculum. Almost everyone who took the basic course wanted more lessons. The advanced course teaches more complicated designs, painting on items like wearing apparel, etc. and it also includes two lessons in painting on plastic (Mrs. Ganje and Mrs. Hayes have developed their own technique for plastic). In the advance course each person is usually making something different and each design is different; so classes are limited to six students so that more individual attention may be given.

FOR ASPIRING artists Mrs. Ganje and Mrs. Hayes offer some helpful hints on how to paint on fabric. They suggest you select a rather simple article to begin with. Organdy is an easy fabric on which to work; and your article might be an apron, or a place mat, or a bridge table cover, with a butterfly design.

First, trace a picture of a butterfly (just the outline will do, and if you wish, trace in a few details) or draw it freehand. Place your paper on your pinning board and pin your organdy apron over it, putting the design in the lower left-hand corner (a pocket usually goes in the upper right-hand corner.) Pin it down with glass top tacks or pins, being careful not to scratch the material, but make sure it is pinned firmly. Squeeze out on your palette a small amount of black, burnt sienna and yellow paints (amounts about the size of a pea). Thin a small amount of the burnt sienna oil paint with the white gasoline (keep only a small amount of the gasoline in an open container when using it) to the consistency of light cream, dipping your sable brush into the gasoline first, then thinning the paint. Twirl your brush in the paint to fill it, then blot it on your paint rag until the gasoline is all blotted out and the paint remains.

Outline the wings of the butterfly with as long strokes as possible, using a light touch. Then clean your brush, and with the same brush, thin some black paint and paint the body, first outlining it, then painting with a downward curve, across the body. Next, shade in the edges, leaving a highlight down the entire length of the body in the center. Be sure to remember to blot the brush each time, before touching it to the fabric. Clean the brush.

Take the stiff bristle brush, and thin a small amount of yellow paint. Fill your brush by brushing it flatly on the palette; then blot until the gasoline is blotted out. Starting from the body, and using a light touch, stroke with a curved brush stroke out over the wing, and sweep your brush up over the fabric so that you will not have a harsh, definite ending of the brush stroke. Cover the wing, and be sure your brush is dry enough so that your brush strokes show, with a shadowy look. The strokes should "fan out" from the body over the wing.

Now clean the yellow paint from the brush and thin some burnt sienna in the same manner. Blot the excess gasoline off the brush. Starting from the edge of the wing (outer edge, not the body) make curved strokes inward to meet the yellow. Bring the two colors together, and again remember to lift your brush with a sweeping stroke off the material so that your brush endings will not be sharp. Clean the brush.

Take the sable brush again and put in the markings of the butterfly (spots, lines, etc.).

Your work is ready to be set. With a piece of white wrapping paper or letter paper, cover the design and press it with a hot iron. Remove the paper, and press again. Your painting can be laundered, if properly set, but do not use a bleach. It also can be dry cleaned.

BOTH Mrs. Ganje and Mrs. Hayes stress the importance of taking good care of your brushes. They advise that you clean them after each using in the white gasoline, then wash them with soap and water, rinse, and dry. When it comes to brushes, these two young women always buy the best they can get. Good brushes wear much longer and do a much better job than an inexpensive brush.

"Once you become accustomed to painting on fabric" explains Kay Ganje, "you can easily learn to make professional looking items. There is no limit to the designs that can be worked out. And with a little ingenuity you can individualize every article."

"It's hard to say just how a new pattern is born," continues Mrs. Hayes. "Ideas come out of almost any daily experience—in the things you see outside your window, in your neighbor's garden, in some object in your house, in magazine pictures. You find yourself looking at everything in a new light and wondering what you could do with it on a piece of fabric!"

Mrs. Hayes has done an interesting pair of curtains for her own kitchen. On the bottom of each panel she made a fine drawing (with brush and black oil paint) of a French chef. Then she painted the panels with food—a ham, a bowl of salad, lemon meringue pie, etc.—everything that would be included in a wonderful dinner, from hors d'oeuvres to demitasse!

Kay Ganje's first love is the designs she does for children; for their cribs, their clothing, their playrooms. Particularly interesting are the pictures of animals she paints on pieces of silk fabric which can be framed and are perfect for a child's room. If every little girl and boy in St. Paul doesn't wear a happy smile day and night it won't be her fault! To brighten a youngster's room, Mrs. Ganje suggests curtains painted with nursery rhyme characters which are very intriguing to small fry. "And how about painting that beloved prayer beginning 'Now I lay me down to sleep' on a crib spread?" she asks.

The fabric painting done by both Mrs. Ganje and Mrs. Hayes is realistic, and does not lend itself to stenciling or abstract design. Therefore these women do not use stencils.

SETTING UP a home business is not as much of a problem as you might think. Mrs. Ganje has set aside a corner of her living room as her studio, while Mrs. Hayes calls her dining room, with the bright south and east exposures, her workshop. At all times they keep card tables arranged with paints and fabrics ready for use so that any time they have a few spare moments they can get right to work. But they adhere to regular work periods each day, too. Mrs. Ganje does her painting after lunch while her two small children nap; and again in the evening when the children are tucked in bed and her husband is busy with his newspaper. She conducts her painting classes on the two evenings a week when her husband is gone himself, teaching at Globe Business College in St. Paul.

Mrs. Hayes is not quite as tied down as her friend and co-worker. Her three children are older, and all go to school. However, like Mrs. Ganje she believes in doing her housework in the morning and devoting the afternoon to painting, either in her own home or at Kay Ganje's when they happen to be working out a new design. Fran Hayes arranges her classes for the evening, also, for it is then that her husband and her children are busy in the hobby room in the basement. The Hayes family is very hobby-minded! Thirteen-year-old Tommy has a profitable hobby raising rabbits, Johnny and Mary are budding artists, and Mr. Hayes (assisted by Tommy), likes to build short-wave radios.

Neither Mrs. Ganje nor Mrs. Hayes has found it difficult to carry on a career at home. They both contend that it is relaxing to sit down and paint after a morning of housework. "And it's a wonderful feeling to be able to earn money without leaving our homes or neglecting our families," says Fran Hayes. Another good feature about working at home is that there is no problem of having someone else care for the children, and none of the worry and strain which goes with a job which keeps you away from the children all day."

HOW DO you go about finding customers? is the question most frequently asked anyone who operates a home business. Fran Hayes' reply to this query is: "We paint wherever we go; on trips, to the lake in the summer, on picnics. People watch us and we get students this way and make many sales, too. We also wear our hand-painted clothing and our husbands wear our ties. Other parents notice the shirts and overalls we paint for our children, and this, too, brings in orders."

Among other suggestions, Mrs. Ganje offered these: List potential buyers among your friends and acquaintances and send out some form of announcement. If you live in a small town you might write up your story briefly, putting in some human interest detail such as how you happened to go into business, and take it to your local newspaper. You might take the editor a sample of your work. If he likes it, he probably will print a little piece about you.

One of the most difficult problems for the home craftsman to solve is the price to place on an article. There is no point in spending a lot of time and energy and then selling an item at a loss because you don't know how much your cost has actually been. So, Mrs. Ganje advises that starting from scratch you keep strict account of the cost of material and of the time spent in making your item. For example, if you are painting a luncheon set, you must keep in mind that you will paint the fifth place mat far more quickly than you did the first, so your price tag should be set on the quicker time. And don't forget to allow something for wrapping, too.

A very fair measuring stick to use when setting the price tag for your article is that given by the New York State Department of Commerce. Once you have a record of your material, labor and overhead cost, they tell you, add ten per cent in case you ever wish to get wholesale orders. Take these total costs and double them. You then have your top retail price. Then, ask yourself: Would I pay this price for this article? If your answer is yes, rest assured your price is a fair one. If you hesitate over the price, so in all probability will your customers. Then you must go back and see if you can cut your expenses or improve your working time. Never reduce the quality of your work, though. If you can't reach a suitable price, try a new and simpler design.

The fact that Mrs. Ganje and Mrs. Hayes average approximately $2 an hour on their painting, and more than that when teaching, makes their venture in art seem very worth-while.

JUST AS soon as these two St. Paul women had enough students to keep their classes humming, and enough private business to make them realize they had something people wanted, it was only natural that their next step, was to sell to stores. At first they went home discouraged. Department stores wanted only bulk quantities (which would have been impossible for them to fill) and small shop owners hesitated to buy from unknowns. Determined to get their items in the shops, Mrs. Ganje and Mrs. Hayes began offering their things to gift shops on a consignment basis (which means they would be paid for them when they were sold). The high quality of their work brought repeat orders immediately. Once they had a few good outlets it was easier making others. Recently, an exclusive men's clothing shop in St. Paul heard about their men's ties and placed a large order.

Designing ties is one of their pet projects. And they don't always paint animals or initials on them, either. A few weeks ago a man in the automobile business ordered a tie with a 1952 Ford painted on it!

"The first sale I ever made," recalls Mrs. Ganje, "was at the time I was still painting aprons for that apron company. I'd done a tie for my husband with ducks on it. Someone saw it and ordered one just like it."