230 
HERAMIC STUDIO 
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A COURSE IN CHINA DECORATION 
By JETTA EHLERS 
(Courtesy of the American Woman's Leajiue) 
(continued) 
NINTH LESSON 
THE USE OF FLOWERS IN DECORATION 
WE take up in this lesson the use of flowers in the dec- 
oration of china. 
There are three ways of using flowers in decoration 
outside of the strictly conventional, by which is meant, 
the very abstract or line decoration. The three ways 
referred to are, the "pattern," the purely naturalistic, and 
the purely decorative. In this lesson we will give our 
attention to the "pattern" method. This term pattern 
requires a few words of explanation to the student. A 
flower used in this way is painted rather flatly, preserving 
the characteristics of the flower, but so arranging it on 
the object to be decorated that the flower, its leaves and 
its stems, shall all compose an ornament or design. This 
ornament or motif, grouped and repeated at intervals 
and capable of great variety, produces a decoration which 
has dignity and charm. The very advanced worker may 
not accept it as the best, but it is so infinitely better than 
the old sprawling naturalistic painting that it has a right 
to exist. 
This sort of decoration has been called the "com- 
promise." A very good name, too, for there is just enough 
of the naturalistic left to satisfy one class, and still the 
rules of good design have been observed. Every lesson 
in this course has emphasized the fact that true decoration 
of china is not the painting of pictures, of flowers, or other 
objects from nature, on the dishes we use. One class of 
students readily grasp this truth. Another class, and 
alas! a large one, fight against it, refusing to be open- 
minded, allowing prejudice to block the way of progress. 
Then, there is a third class, not particularly attracted to 
conventional work, and yet willing to be led. To this 
group of workers the "pattern" or compromise idea of 
decoration comes as a happy solution of the question. 
So much has been said on this subject of the conventional 
and the naturalistic, and yet our workers seem unable to 
understand what constitutes good decoration. Perhaps 
if the words "painting" and "decorating" were substituted, 
it would be easier to grasp the idea. We paint a picture 
on a canvas, for instance; we decorate a plate. We do not 
paint a picture on a plate, nor do we decorate a canvas. 
We may decorate the canvas by surrounding it with a 
frame to enhance the beauty of the picture, and that is 
just what good -decoration aims to do. Your plate with 
its naturalistic painting is in the same class. It needs a 
frame. It is certainly out of place on your table, obscured 
perhaps by plebeian corn-beef and cabbage. The plate 
was made for a purpose, and the decorator must not lose 
sight of that for a moment. By way of another illustra- 
tion, let us consider the walls of your room as a surface to 
be decorated. You would not choose to have naturalistic 
flowers painted or printed on your wall here and there at 
random, without the least regard for any sense of law and 
order. One coming into the room would be startled and 
made more or less uncomfortable. Nothing in such a room, 
in the way of furnishings, could hold its own against walls 
like these. 
Take this same scattered flower, place it formally at 
regular intervals spaced in some pleasing way, and lo! you 
have a decoration. Your sense of law and order is no 
longer offended, and you are conscious of some thought 
back of it all. The decoration now has some interest. 
Can you not see the difference? Study your wall once 
more, and you will find that the naturalistic flower, though 
placed in a formal way, is so pronounced in color and line 
that it stands out with too much prominence, everything 
in the room being overpowered by the wall decoration. 
By experimenting you will find that the color will 
be much improved when toned down, and the design made 
more pleasing if much simplified. You now begin to feel 
that things look well against such a background. The 
wall is meant to be a background for your pictures and 
furniture, and you destroy the beauty and balance of your 
room if you make it anything else. As you study the 
subject still further, you feel a need of having more har- 
mony between the things in your room and the walls. 
You have progressed several steps, but all is not yet 
satisfactory. Reduce your wall decoration to still more 
simple lines, and to perhaps two tones of one color, which 
would repeat the predominating color of your hangings, 
etc. At once you have harmony. Things "go" together 
