m6 
RFRAMIC STUDIO 
RUSKIN POTTERY. 
hibited at the London Arts and Crafts Exhibition and on 
the merits of the work Mr. Taylor was made a member of 
the Society. St. Louis is the first international exhibition 
to which the pottery has been sent and to it has been awarded 
a grand prize. 
Very little that is useful can be written about the 
pottery in the absence of examples as the experiments are 
artistic rather than scientific and illustrations can only 
show the shapes and not the coloring or the feel of the ware. 
The clays used are yellow and white, carefully prepared so 
that, beside ware of the ordinary thickness, bowls, cups, etc., 
can be made extremely light in weight. All the pottery is 
made on the potter's wheel; the patterns are hand painted, 
derived from plain forms and kept very subordinate, many 
of the pieces being without pattern; the glazes are leadless 
and the colors are the few oxides which will not be destroyed 
by the great heat of the oven. 
Efforts are directed not to the finding of what is pos- 
sible with these self-imposed limitations, but what of this 
RUSKIN POTTERY. 
possible is desirable both for use and artistic expression, 
bearing in mind that the materials lend themselves to the 
production of enamels under the glaze similar to those seen 
in a rocky sea pool. No moulds are used for casting or 
pressing the ware, no patterns are printed, stencilled or 
lithographed, no patterns or lustre are applied on the glaze, 
there is no imitation of other material (as in the later work 
of Wedgwood) such as bronzes, etc., or the realistic painting 
of figures, landscapes and flowers in rivalry of oil or water 
color painting. These things have proved pitfalls in the 
development of pottery as an art because they were pitch- 
forked into it at a time in its growth when it was not strong 
enough to assimilate them. 
The exhibits of Ruskin pottery at St. Louis were 
chiefly rich blues, greens, purples, etc., and did not include 
the robin egg's blue with gossamer like patterns, peach 
blow and effects like cloissonne'enamels' which are the most 
artistic results of the factorv. 
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BOWL— EMMA A. ERVIN 
