KERAMIC STUDIO 
columns a department of " Answers to Correspondents on 
Glass." Mr. D. M. Campana has kindly offered to take charge 
of this department. As his articles lately published in Keramic 
Studio have shown, he is well qualified for this work, having 
had much experience in glass work both in Italy and in this 
country. From now on glass shapes will be found regularly 
at most dealer shops. Try glass decoration, and if you meet 
with difficulties of any kind in your trials, write to us. 
A FEW SUGGESTIONS 
Henrietta B. Paist, Assistant Editor 
Right on the heels of the linen shortage comes the suggestion 
for doilies and table covers made from oil cloth, rubber cloth, 
Sanitas and similar materials stenciled in designs of bright 
flowers and fruit. These make attractive and serviceable sub- 
stitutes for linen, especially for the country home, the sun 
porch, as well as the breakfast and dining room. For those 
who can not create new designs, back numbers of Keramic 
Studio furnish hosts of attractive designs which can be easily 
adapted to the limitations of stenciling. Oil paints are used, 
with a medium of turpentine and Japan dryer. The designs 
can be glazed with shellac after painting to make it more 
durable. The Sanitas, having an eggshell surface, has more 
of the appearance of fabric, and is cheaper than the rubber 
- sheeting, and much prettier than ordinary oil-cloth. The 
edges of the doilies can be stitched with coarse silk and trimmed 
close. These sets are attractive gifts and find a ready market 
wherever they have been offered. 
Spring is here. Summer is before us. Have your port- 
folios ready. Don't lose an opportunity to jot down some in- 
teresting bit of nature, leaves, flowers, plants showing con- 
struction. Make color notes and classify each bit. These can 
be turned to account in the studio. Get the habit of making 
simplified drawings from these, in easy stages, gradually elim- 
inating all unnecessary detail until the matter of conventiona- 
ization is comparatively easy. Utilize the Summer months 
by reading books on design, and if you are fortunately situated, 
go to your library art room and browse in the portfolios show- 
ing nature forms, flowers, birds, animals, insects. If you have 
not any library, get out all your back numbers of Keramic Studio 
and look up all the good drawings of plants. Get into a sum- 
mer class in design in some good art school if possible, and if 
not, study design in any way which is possible,but study. Don't 
drift around from studio to studio and copy. Learn tech- 
nique, methods, firing, all that in the studio, and design also if 
that is a part of the curriculum, as it should be,but the point is 
ST UD Y. Learn to think and judge for yourself. You will 
come back to your studio in the Fall brimming over with ideas 
to work out. Methods are secondary, the ideas are what the 
world is paying for. Be a live one. You don't know just when 
some firm or individual will recognize your particular style as 
valuable for a specific purpose. There are more demands for 
artistic skill in heaven and earth than we have yet dreamed of. 
Broaden your vision and your field of endeavor. Make your- 
self independent, individual, creative. Study. 
M H 
ART NOTES 
The Fourth Annual Art Exhibition was held in the St. 
Paul Auditorium from March 2d to 10th. The states repre- 
sented were: Minnesota, Wisconsin, the two Dakotas, Iowa, 
Illinois, Nebraska and Montana. The works exhibited in- 
cluded oils, water colors, etching and sculpture, and the gen- 
eral standard was about the same as in former years. 
Besides the contributions of local artists was a collection 
SUGGESTIONS 
FOR 
TULIP DESIGNS 
(See page 5) 
of French, English and Italian posters, which vividly por- 
trayed conditions "over there." A picture is certainly the 
short cut to literature, for these simple and forceful drawings 
contained whole volumes, and stirred the emotions more deeply 
than any word recital could. 
The exhibition also included Joseph Pennell's American 
and English war lithographs, and were made with the permis- 
sion and authority of the two governments. 
The drawings are impressive and convincing testimony of 
this terrible chapter of the world's history, and the explanatory 
notes by Mr. Pennell contained illuminating bits of informa- 
tion and flashes of human philosophy. Mr. Pennell's gospel 
is that great work is great art, and his observation that today 
"Art is joined to Science— not Religion" is substantiated in 
these huge engines of destruction which he designates as "a 
triumph of misdirected energy and skill." For no matter how 
deep the conviction of the immediate necessity of it all, this 
(Continued on page 4) 
