Vol. XII. No. 6 
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK 
October 1910 
present this month a showing 
of the design class work of Miss 
Maud Mason, of New York. We 
regret that through misunder- 
standing we are unable to show 
photographs of finished work as 
we had hoped. Students will find 
the color sheet of especial value, 
both as a study in color combina- 
tions and as a demonstration of the possible variation of a 
subject for use as a motif in decoration. The basket of fruit 
or flowers as a motif admits of an infinite variety of interpre- 
tations, both in color and design. This color sheet is from 
designs by Miss Mason's class. 
We would like to call the attention of those who are 
following the study course in ceramics by Miss Jetta Ehlers, 
which we are publishing by courtesy of the American 
Woman's League, to the fact that while we publish the 
lessons intact, the especial value given to it by the League 
is that the students do the work and send it for criticism 
to Mrs. Kathryn Cherry, who is in charge at University City, 
or they can explain their peculiar difficulties and get help 
from her. The criticism is the most helpful part of the 
course. Moreover, those who are trying to become honor 
students of the League and have a year's tuition at Uni- 
versity City, not only free but receiving a salary of sixty 
dollars a month for expenses, can not do it by simply follow- 
ing the course as published in Keramic Studio. It must be 
taken up with Mrs. Cherry and she must pass upon one 
lesson before the student is allowed to go on to the next. 
Such a student must also take with the china painting lessons 
the course in ceramic design prepared by Mrs. Cherry, her- 
self. This is the only course in design as applied to ceramics 
that is published and is of inestimable value to the student 
of ceramics. Some members of the League, readers of 
Keramic Studio, have written to Mrs. Cherry that they have 
had the lessons up-to-date in Keramic Studio and want to 
begin work with her on the next. This is impossible. Any 
one taking the League course must begin at the beginning. 
She will be allowed to progress as rapidly as she is able. 
Burley & Co., of Chicago, who have just held a com- 
petitive exhibition of overglaze decoration at their shop, as 
announced in the July Keramic Studio, will send us photo- 
graphs of the successful pieces and some of the other inter- 
esting exhibits. We will be unable to show them before 
December on account of lack of space. 
* 
The November issue will be devoted to the class work 
of Mrs. Kathryn Cherry, of the American Woman's League. 
The supplement will be a design of a plate in gold and orange 
by Mrs. Cherry, herself. 
The December supplement will be a decorative study of 
Larkspur by Miss Selma Case. This flower is so full of 
decorative possibilities that we are surprised that so few 
decorators have used it. We would be glad to have sub- 
mitted to us, designs on this motif. Another flower which 
should be more used is the Foxglove, with its spikes of 
pendant bells of pink or white with spotted throats. The 
Phlox, too, is still another very useful subject for decoration 
and not so hackneyed as many that are in use. 
The January supplement will be a service or fruit 
plate of orange tree design, by Miss Mabel Dibble, of Chicago. 
It will be found very useful and attractive. 
The February supplement will be a fine study of pink 
Rhododendrons, by Alice Willits Donaldson. It is more 
naturalistic than most of her studies, but extremely decora- 
tive and should prove very acceptable to our decorators. 
The competition for "Little Things to Make" closes 
October the fifteenth. We are hoping for a Christmas 
number very full of these little things for Christmas presents. 
It will be published in plenty of time to be of use for the 
holidays. We are preparing a list of useful little objects 
for decoration, which can be procured for the Christmas 
trade, together with the addresses of the dealers who can 
supply them. This will be published in the December 
issue, coming out the last of November; plates and cups 
and saucers will not be considered in this competition. 
Nor any object larger than a small hot water pitcher. 
* 
We show this month a photograph of the first pieces 
made in the new pottery at Halcyon, California. It is the 
first work of amateurs and all built by hand as they have no 
potter's wheel as yet. The work is very commendable for 
beginners and promises well. When they have procured 
their wheel the decorations, no doubt, will take on a more 
conventionalized tone. At present the idea of decoration 
seems more allied to sculpture than to pottery decoration. 
There is, no doubt, a fascination about modeling natural 
forms and they have their place even in pottery, as paper 
weights, small figurines, etc. As decoration, however, they 
must be conventionalized to be appropriate, as a pottery 
form must be a thing of beauty itself, and the decoration 
should be subordinate as in overglaze work. A modeled 
thing must exist for itself alone. "No man can serve two 
masters," either the vase or other piece of pottery must be 
the important thing or the sculptured form. The latter is 
more beautiful alone than applied to a vase or dish. The 
vase or dish is more beautiful with a flat decoration which is 
not fully seen until examined closely, the beauty of the 
form being the first thing noted. 
The pieces illustrated from the Halcyon Pottery show 
an exceedingly plastic clay, easily adaptable to modeling and 
carving; none of the pieces showing cracks in drying, while 
many are very thin and paper-like in effect. It would seem 
that they might almost make the little Banko teapots, 
which the Japanese make so charmingly. 
