WITHOUT THE Zeida Rothmans of the world, we'd still slumber under down comforters, blot our faces dry with thick, cotton towels and dine off sturdy china platters. But our bedding, linens and dishes would come only in bland monochromatic schemes.

An expert in creating patterns - plaids, paisleys, toile, stripes - Rothman has been making the material world a more beautiful place one bolt of cloth and one wallpaper border at a time for 30 years.

She's also trained hundreds of students in surface design at a school she founded 28 years ago in Berkeley. A native New Yorker, Rothman ran her own design company in that city's garment district for 12 years before moving West.

Rothman's school, The California School of Professional Fabric Design, spontaneously grew from friends' request to teach them to create patterns for textiles. She started out teaching classes around her kitchen table.

Today, her vocational school is licensed by the state and runs year-round. It's earned high marks from those in the industry but is little-known outside the design field.
strongA placard on top of the chest of drawers advises: "Fear no surface."

"People don't want to leave," Rothman says of her students. "Our graduation ceremony has a lot of Kleenex."

No wonder no one's gung-ho to graduate. The surroundings are tasteful and calming. The instructor is warm and affirming.

In the hallway, a stone fountain trickles. An embroidered gold kimono decorates one wall, and nearby a wall-size fabric hanging showcases Rothman's own fabric design, a detailed scene of woven American Indian-style baskets.

"The physical environment of the school is so nurturing, they just love to come every week," says Rothman, who wears her blond hair long and wavy over a red jacquard tunic. "It's like therapy. They get a lot of positive reinforcement."

"I work with everyone one-on-one in the school, so I know that they really get the work," says Rothman. "I do a lot of listening to where they're at, and they talk to me.

"That has to be taken into consideration," she says. "I'm working with a human being, not just someone who is creating designs."

Her teaching style appears to be working. Graduates have gone on to secure jobs with companies including Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, Hallmark and Bed, Bath and Beyond.

ONLY SCHOOL OF ITS KIND

The California School of Professional Fabric Design is the only institution of its kind in Northern California.

"This is the students' work," Rothman says leading a tour of the gallery, where framed designs on paper range from a tropical hula scene to a whimsical cupcake and confetti pattern. "Many of the students here have no art background. What they learn is to be diversified so they can design for a wide variety of products."

Graduates work in specialties including men's wear, women's wear, children's wear, home furnishings, dishware and rugs.

One recent graduate is designing high-end cashmere blankets decorated with traditional American Indian motifs. On another gallery wall are student-designed plates with patterns from grape clusters to an Italian-style mosaic.

"This is all hand-done," Rothman says. "We deal with all different mediums. We work with gouache, water color and computer."

When prospective students call her up and confess that they can't draw, Rothman tells them, "That's great! You'll be amazed to see what you can really do."

Nina Graves, 40, of Kensington is one of Rothman's success stories. An elementary school teacher for 11 years, Graves decided she was ready for a more visually creative profession. It was a good fit; she now works as a freelance designer for Cost Plus World Market.

"I like the variety of techniques and skills we learned and assignments that really stretched me," Graves says. "That led to a lot of growth for me."

Many of the school's alumni keep in touch with Rothman, sending her postcards or magazine clippings featuring their work. Some who work in the field speak at monthly professional support meetings at the school.

On this sunny spring evening, students in the third-floor classroom display their finished work and hear Rothman's critique.

Let's see what you've done," she says. "If anyone wasn't here last week, I wanted you to see Nobuko's painting."

Nobuko Tessien Goswami, 62, opens a large black portfolio. She turns the pages and stops at a red wallpaper pattern of children in traditional Japanese dress playing with beach balls.

"I finished this one," Goswami says. "You told me to add more sepia and white."

"Isn't that just beautiful?" Rothman says. She gives the scene and its coordinating border her seal of approval.

Students take turns presenting pieces from an elaborate Asian-style floral to a set of six perky plaids in combinations from lime-and-lavender to black-red-and-white.

LOTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Praise is frequent and generous. But Rothman's no pushover. When a pattern isn't quite right, she steps in and guides the student toward a better palette or more complete design. In one case, she sketches in a stem on a repetitive leaf pattern.

For a color matching project requiring students to exactly replicate their fabric swatch, she recommends that the designer add more geranium to the red and a touch of sepia to the olive green.

"An eye for color - oh my gosh - she is wonderful with color," says 40-year-old student Vaswati Bhatnagar of Palo Alto. "With her it's an art."

"This school has been amazing," says Bhatnagar, who worked as a textile designer in India before taking time off to raise her family. "I came back to school to upgrade my skills ... a more nurturing school you won't find."

Rothman takes pride in her students' progress and finds satisfaction in passing along secrets of the trade she learned over a lifetime.

"I'm definitely doing my dream job," she says. "I think students see that in me. Many pick up my passion, which touches the same passion within themselves."