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Janet Flinchbaugh of Glens Falls is
one of America’s 200 best early American craftspersons, according to
Early American Life magazine. Janet designs and creates stenciled
canvas floor cloths, which are used now in the same way they were in the
American colonies—as coverings for floors in place of fabric rugs.
Stenciled floor cloths were brought to
the colonies by European settlers and were found in the homes of
famous early Americans such as Washington and Jefferson as well as the
common folks whose homes had simple dirt floors. Colonial women were
known to sweep patterns in the dirt until itinerant painters began
producing the colorful floor cloths that both added to the décor of a
simple colonial home and helped keep it warm in winter and bug-free in
summer. The hand-painted cloths were also used to decorate tabletops
and walls.
Janet uses canvas, acrylics and
varnish to create her cloths, and replicates many traditional colonial
designs such as the Mariner’s Compass or draws her own, using
contemporary patterns and geometrics such as the black and white
diamond as her inspiration. She hot glues the hems and adds several
coats of varnish to protect the design, which allows it to be used
underfoot. Her favorite pattern theme is vegetables--eggplants,
carrots, mushrooms and artichokes. Her floor cloths come in all sizes,
from the most popular, two feet by three feet size to full room size
coverings of nine by eleven or twelve.
A trip to colonial Williamsburg in the
early 70’s marked the beginning of Janet’s attraction to and
fascination for this traditional American craft form. Until then she
had loved other colonial art and crafts and had taught crewel
embroidery. But painting drew her in and the fact that stenciled
floor cloths were functional as well as beautiful.
She first took a class from early
American painter, Norma Stark, then kept reading and researching the
techniques and styles on her own. Janet began producing stenciled
floor cloths for sale about fifteen years ago and has many of her
pieces purchased by such famous sites as Natchez Trace in Mississippi,
and the John Jay Home in Westchester County, NY. Each floor cloth is a
unique, totally handcrafted work done exclusively by Janet taking
about a day to complete for the smaller ones, and up to three months
for the room and hall size coverings. | 
