RERAMIC STUDIO 
57 
to make it a little better, touching here and there, and 
pulling up the color, you had best take it off all and com- 
mence again. 
But daubing in and out is uncertain work. As the 
lustres are very much the same yellowish grey color, a light 
shade before the kiln develops them, and not nearly so 
strong as they become, it is quite easy to suppose the sur- 
face clean and free from lustre when it is not. It is well to 
remember that lustres cannot be painted over unfired 
lustres. Any little unobserved particles cause blemish in 
the fired work. 
Then keep your hands off it. How everybody wants to 
touch china. Even in working at it we touch it too much. 
Study deftness in handling, with no touching of the sur- 
face. When dried and cool wrap the china in tissue paper, 
and fire as soon as possible. But, if before firing, you think 
dust may have rested on the china, wipe oft" with a soft silk 
handkerchief. 
Use any brushes for any colors, even gold brushes or 
painting brushes, only be sure they are clean and dry. 
You need not have a great array of brushes. Wash them 
by dipping in turpentine or alcohol, when they are dry they 
are ready for use again. When you have finished for the 
day, after using the turpentine or alcohol wash which removes 
the color, wash freely with soap and water, exactly as you 
would brushes used for oil painting. This keeps the hairs soft 
and same as when new. Point carefully, or flatten as the 
shape of the brushes may require. Turpentine and many 
of the mediums we use in mineral painting, make the brushes 
coarse and hard. Thoroughly cleaning with soap and 
water preserves them and keeps them so we may enjoy 
using them. Do not have brushes labeled and kept for 
special lustres. It is only confusing. Keep them all so 
clean that they may be used for any lustres. As you should 
not use a brush until dry, it is not of any consequence 
whether it be turpentine or alcohol with which you wash 
out the colors. 
If finger marks leave blurs and creases you may be 
sure that hairs that may escape from the brushes will be 
damaging too. The placing of lustres needs more dainty 
management than any other material of mineral painting. 
Wet brushes will change the color of the lustres. It 
may be remedied after firing by a second application of same 
lustre, though of course the color deepens. Light green 
and dark green are especially apt to change in first firing 
either from this cause or by gases in the kilns, but a second 
application of same lustre makes them even in tint. 
Lustres should have strong firings to make them 
permanent. Underfired lustres may be refired without 
retouching. As lustres do not enter into the glaze, but re- 
main on the surface, as gold does, they are, like gold, Hable 
to wear off. So give them as strong firing as possible to insure 
wearing quality. It can scarcely be fired too strong. It 
is beautiful and I he colors carry perfectly in a firing even so 
strong that gold is burnt off. Do not be tempted because 
the lustres develop very quickly, to put them in the part of 
the kiln that gives the lightest fire. Although they com- 
mence to develop in even the small heat of a gas oven, they 
need the strongest kind of firing to insure permanency. 
I find opal one of the best wearing colors, a permanent one. 
Even the glass burnisher used ever so hard has no effect 
upon it. The best way to use opal is to paint it on thin. 
Use china that is rounding, not with perfectly plain surfaces. 
A tile would not be the best surface to bring out the beautiful 
qualities of lustre, nor would a flat rimmed plate. Shapes 
that are modeled and carved suit iridescent colors best. 
Opal used very heavily develops yellow spots that are too 
strong to be charming. Unless it is to be padded, paint the 
opal lustre thin, even if it must have two applications and 
two firings. 
When several paintings of lustre are put on the same 
surface fight lustres should be placed over the dark ones. 
Light lustres such as yellow or orange, opal or even light 
green, if you want a greenish tint, develop the best irides- 
ROSE DESIGN FOR PLATE No. I— MAUD MYERS 
Plate with narrow border is to have pink roses on a gold background. 
