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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Jfor Mloram. 
[CONDUCTED BY MISS FAITH RIPLEY. 
KERAMIKAL KRAZE. 
Of all the diseases that over were known 
Sinoe Noah's unfortunate days, • 
The strangest that yet has afflicted mankind 
Is the present keramikal kraze— 
Ke-ra-mi-kal— 
Oh, yes, the keramikal kraze! 
You may spell it oeramical craze, if you choose 
To follow illiterate ways ; 
But modern Kultcha komiuands that it should 
Be spell-ed keramieal kraze— 
Ke-ra-mi-kal— 
You know—the keramikal kraze. 
Whoever is seized with this kurious kompl&int, 
Very soon all the symptoms betraj'B— 
And, by gum, every pot, mug and Jug in the house 
With birds, bugs, aud Japanese blaze 1 
Ke-ra-mi-kal! 
For such is keramikal kraze. 
By and by, when this Uueer epidemic is o’er— 
The ash-man will stand in amaze 
To find all the barrels so full ol' “ ould pots”— 
The remains of keramikal kraze— 
Ke-ra-mi-kal— 
Then adieu to keramik .1 kraze I 
[Boston Commercial Bulletin. 
DECORATING POTTERY. 
Great as Is the temptation to descant awhile on 
the history of Ceramic Art., and on its power or 
affording glimpses of ancient times and peoples 1 
the scope of this article Is too limited to admit of 
which It is Intended, will only add to It. Neither 
should the colors he used from the bottle, as ex¬ 
posure to the air will cause them to become gum¬ 
my, and unfit for use. Remove a small quantity 
to a paint saucer, and mix as required. 
In mixing two or more colors to get a new tint, 
he sure and mix a sufficient quantity to cover the 
object intended, as It wtll be difficult to produce 
the same shade a second time. After using the 
colors, cleanse the paint-saucers and brushes 
Fia. 5T» 
nard baked ware, being less porous, will not 
absorb the fluid so rapidly aud the same prepara¬ 
tion being applied will be allowed to dry more on 
the surface, aud will form a glaze, which Is not 
desirable. To obviate this, the color should be 
diluted with pure spirits of turpentine, which 
should be added drop by drop until a proper result 
be obtained. This can bo done by testing It on 
the bottom or the vase to he decorated. Turpen¬ 
tine used for this purpose should be kept from 
the air,—a glass-stoppered bottle is the best ves¬ 
sel to keep It In ; otherwise It will become gum¬ 
my, and Instead of obviating the difficulty lor 
Fio. 3, 
Fig. 1. 
our doing justice to so Imposing a theme; we shall 
therefore consider pottery solely from a decora¬ 
tive point of view, and without anything more 
in the line of preliminaries, we will proceed to 
give a few plain, practical hlnts.on the subject of 
decorations. 
First, as to materials used : they are : colors, 
platform, brushes, paint-saucers, tracing paper. 
Impression paper, sand paper, splrlis of turpen¬ 
tine and boiled oil. As the materials used in the 
decoration of pottery are few, they should be of 
the best quality, and carefully selected. Perhaps 
no one Item will so much contribute to success 
or failure as the colors used, and a thorough 
knowledge of them Is quite essential. Pottery 
or earthenware Is porous aud It la the different 
degrees of porosity which oauHe a difficulty, if it 
were all alike, there would bo no trouble and the 
color once prepared, would alw ays produce the 
same results. Unfortunately this Is not the case 
aud ware of a light bake will be found very po¬ 
rous. A hard bake Is the other extreme, and be¬ 
tween these Is a wide difference. The first will 
absorb the color bo rapidly that the pigment will 
be left on the surface as a powder, and will rub 
off. 
thoroughly with turpentine, else the paint when 
dry will be dltfleult to remove from the saucer, 
and will ruin the brushes for further use. We 
have shown how to graduate the colors for use 
on soft and hard ware. There Is still another Bur- 
face to be prepared for ; when sand-paper and oil 
are used to Improve the ware, the dust from the 
pottery and oil will fill the pores, and form a new 
surface. If the bottom of the vase be subjected 
to the same treatment. It can be used to test the 
colors upon. Sometimes It may be necessary to 
use a second coat of paint, to correct errors, or to 
change a pattern : In such cases, use more tur¬ 
pentine In the second coat, as the first coat will 
have changed the surface, and the same combin¬ 
ation may produce a gloss. We have gone into de¬ 
tail In the use of these colors,as the material they 
are to bo used upon Is so entirely unlike anything 
else that special treatment Is required to obtain 
full success. 
A full set of pottery colors comprises white, 
black, red, blue, yellow, and gold. In the Grecian 
style of decoration, black Is the prluclpW color 
used; In Egyptian and other styles, all the colors 
can be used. For combinations of colors, In the 
different schools ol decoration, see Owen Jones’ 
“Grammar of Ornament,” which may he found 
in the larger libraries. There is a more modern 
style of decoration, which consists lu coloring the 
vase entirely with black, and ornamenting with 
flowers, birds, <£c. In tbls, after coloring the 
vase black, the ordinary oil tube colors may be 
used. 
If the deoorator Is not. well ^killed in drawing, 
oris making the first attempt to decorat', we 
would suggest that It be done by using only the 
first letter of the alphabet of ihe universal lan¬ 
guage or drawing—that Is the dot. Make them 
longer or shorter, according to the place they oc¬ 
cupy; a fine illustration of the capacity and 
power of this simple method may be seen on the 
new Doulton ware; they may be arranged hori¬ 
zontally, vertically or obliquely. 
The extension of the dot In one given direction, 
or a point in motion, gives the straight line—the 
second letter of the universal alphabet. 
Fig. 4. 
Fig. 5. 
Fig. is. 
style of ornamentation peculiarly adapted to the 
embellishment of pottery. We would advise much 
practice in this before attempting the third and 
last letter of tne alphabet. 
When the curved Hue Is added, the whole 
range of decorative art is open to the pupil; but 
our advice Is, to keep to tbe simple curves as 
long as possible. 
The quadrant, the semi-circle, the circle, will. 
In conjunction with the dot and straight line, 
furnish many pleasing forms; afterward the 
more subtle curves, as found In the wave scroll, 
the line of beauty, and the anihemeon may he 
attempted. 
One common fault with beginners, we find, Is 
the tendency to put On too much ornament, pro¬ 
ducing a loaded, crowded, disagreeable Impres¬ 
sion upon the mind. 
Few, simple, and chaste, are the ornaments 
that have been universally used. 
The law of the survival of the fittest only, 
has left us but a score or two of forms from the 
nations of antiquity; yet, few as they are, the 
combinations of which they are capable are 
many, and, with the variety produced by change 
of color, ample to meet all our wants In this de¬ 
partment of art. 
In producing this horizontally around the vase, 
a simple mechanical device called a platform, will 
be found quite indispensable. 
The platform will aid and encourage the begin¬ 
ner very muob, for, by that alone, quite a pleas¬ 
ing effect may be produoed by plaolng tbe vase 
upon the oenter of the disk, and then arranging 
the pencil or brush so that the point will touch 
that portion where It is desired to hare a Une or 
band; revolve the disk once slowly, and the work 
Is done. For the next band or line, raise or lower 
the vertical bar, and so on. Horizontal bands and 
lines at different distances apart, with rows of 
dots, give a pleasing result. 
With the straight line horizontal, vertical, and 
oblique, and lu conjunction with the dot, many of 
the most pleasing and classic torma of Ceramic 
decoration are produced. 
The meeting of oblique lines at the same angle 
gives the zigzag, another antique and universal 
decoration. The union of three straight lines 
gives the triangle—of four, the square—If they 
are of the same length and meet at right angles. 
With these taken as units, by varying the size 
and the thickness of the lines, hundreds of di¬ 
verse patterns maybe produced coming under 
what Is technically known as “ diaper work,”—a 
To meet the growing fondness for Decaleomanlc 
ornamentation, a plain pottery Is manufactured 
in classic shapes and at inexpensive rates, it Is 
prepared for use both glazed and unglazed. The 
former Is chosen tor the Immediate transfer of 
pictures that are purchased already shaped in 
proper outlines or are cut from colored or Ink 
prints, photographs, gilt., silver and glazed paper, 
also wad paper, Chinese crepe, and rice paper. 
Calico, cambric, printed silks, brocade silks and 
ribbons are also used to ornament vases, creens, 
Fig. 2. 
The better way to practice is to buy some vase 
—tbe cylinder Is the simplest form, and, next to a 
flat surface, the most easy to work upon, and 
with a hard lead pencil, make the drawings. 
They can easily he erased with sand-paper, 
v4?ieh will also Improve the vaso for permanent 
decoration. After sufficient practice with the 
pencil, try the brush. Skill In the use of the 
brush comes only after careful practice, so that, 
if the beginner is not at first successful. It Is uo 
reason why he should be discouraged. A good 
lesson on the cylinder will bo to divide It Into 
seotlons by drawing, with the aid of the platform 
before described, parallel fines at stated Intervals 
around It; paint every other solid and alternate 
with figures selected frem the studies given. 
A knowledge of drawing—such as Is taught In 
our public schools will be sufficient—will greatly 
assist the amateur; hut It la not absolutely 
necessary, as with the aid of the platform, trac¬ 
ing and Impression paper, very good results may 
be obtained ; for Instance, first, trace the design 
you wish transferred to a vase on to paper 
specially prepared for the purpose. A piece of 
lmpresslou paper must then be placed on the vase 
with the traced outline over It, then go over the 
lines carefully again, with some fine hard polut^- 
a very hard lead pencil will do. When the 
paper Is removed, the design will be found trans¬ 
ferred to the vase. To make the Hues transferred 
permanent, It will be necessary to go over them 
with the paint, which can he done with a fine 
steel pen; although we would advise practice 
with the brush, until the pupil Is proficient In 
drawing flue lines, as a pen la liable to scratch. 
in the use of tracing and impression papers, a 
piece of thin white paper placed between, will 
cause the Hues of the copy to show more promin¬ 
ently t han they will over the Impression paper— 
black Is the best color to use, as It will answer In 
all cases except In drawing on black, when red 
can be used. 
Ob 
Pottery, as received from the hands of the 
potte”, can be greatly Improved by rubbing with 
sand-paper. Many persons prefer a darker shade 
than the natural color of the ware. This can be 
obtained by giving it a coat of boiled linseed oil. 
After rubbing down with sand-paper, a second 
coat will make it still darker. 
The Albert ware is made expressly for orna¬ 
ment, aud will not hold water without Injury to 
the decoration. If the piece has a mouth wide 
enough to admit the hand, It can be made water¬ 
proof by first oiling it on the Inside, then going 
over It with a coat of paint, and, finally, with a 
thick coat of varnish. 
To those who are more particularly Interested 
In transferring pictures from paper or from 
fabrics to wood or earthen ware we have the fol¬ 
lowing to say: 
tables, jardinieres, etc. The unglazed pottery 
may be washed over with thin glue,-wator to fill 
up the pores before the paint is put on, provided 
a different color from the burnt clay is desirable. 
This glue-water will make one coat of palntqulte 
sufficient. The paint may be purchased all pre¬ 
pared in bottles, or the paint of ordinary use In a 
house may be procured. After the pottery or 
wood is dry of the glue, it is painted plainly with 
the color selected. A pale tan or ecru tint, repre¬ 
sents Kioto ware. Aoy other color may be 
chosen If preferred, as porcelains are now found 
In all tints. Decorations like those suggested for 
the glazed ware, may he chosen for pottery fin¬ 
ished In this manner, and are laid on with a flour 
or starch paste In which there Is a little dissolved 
glue. Pastes prepared in bottles may also be 
purchased If more convenient. Afi or the pictures 
are dry, at lfin varnish, also procurable In bottles, 
or of shellac, Is laid over the entire vase or plate 
or whatever Is decorated. Tiffs fl ffshes It. to re¬ 
semble porcelain or delf ware. 
Figure No. 1.—Tiffs Is a vase of Phoenician 
shape. It may be very properly tert of the nat¬ 
ural tint of the clay, and all the ornamentation 
may be black. This may bo done with the black 
Japan varnish and a tiny brush. The effect will 
represent the antique with satisfactory fidelity. 
As this shape has been reproduced in modern 
wares at Sevres, Jassy, Limoges, Dresden, Berlin 
and England, It has been richly colored and high¬ 
ly enameled in many styles of decoration. A me¬ 
dallion, with a “gray and gray” photograph, a 
painted miniature or a printed face, Is effective 
upon Its side. Instead of a bouquet; although 
flowers, singly or In clusters, with their natural 
hues, are a much-admired ornament upon It. The 
borderlugs may be cut from gilt., silver or colored 
papers and pasted upon It, or papers already cut 
may be purchased at small expense at the shops 
where the ware Ls selected. The sizing of the 
article with glue, the painting, aud the addition 
of a coat or two of varnish f o finish It, have all 
been explained. The colors of a vase should 
contrast, pleasantly with the general colors of a 
room, except in such instances as pale-blue, roie- 
ptnk or gold-colored apartments, when they 
should match the tints about, them with exact¬ 
ness. This rule for artistic effects applies to all 
styles of vases, and indeed to all articles that are 
purely ornamental. 
Figore No. 2 .—This vase ls Egyptian aud also 
Moorish In outline, and was much In use to hold 
tbe ashes of the dead. It was one of the earliest 
of the many urn shapes, which increased In vari¬ 
ety and picturesqueness as the centuries grew in 
number. It Is orten painted black all over, and 
the figures are afterward formed by scraping 
away the color with a sharp Instrument. When 
more convenient, the light-colored ornamenta¬ 
tion may be pasted on In dull reds, It tbe original 
Egyptian or the Moorish idea ls to be preserved. 
