Certainly there were some success stories, like Jack Lenor Larsen, who studied at Cranbrook with Marianne Strengell and then went on to a stellar career as a fabric designer. Larsen inherited Liebes’s mantle as Webb’s staunchest ally, exemplifying and promoting the “designer-craftsman” ideal both at home and abroad. Yet the experience of his classmate Ed Rossbach was far more typical. Rossbach later looked back on his student years at Cranbrook in total bemusement. He made one small sample after another, delving deeply into the language of weave structure. Upon graduating, he had a terrific
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