262 
IlERAMIC STUDIO 
THE BEGINNER IN CONVENTIONAL WORK 
MANY beginners feel at loss in starting a conventional 
design. What to do first?— what next? is a constant 
inquiry. 
DRAWING THE DESIGN 
First you need a plate divider, such as is sold by Keramic 
Studio for ten cents, then a sheet of drawing paper and another 
of tracing paper, a bottle of Higgins' India ink, and an India 
ink pen, a medium soft pencil and your china painting outfit. 
If you wish to copy a design directly, if you wish to repeat a 
plate design, for instance, just as it is, on another plate, the 
problem is a simple one. Make a tracing with your soft 
pencil, of a section of the plate, one repeat. If it is a balanced 
design, i. e., the same forms reversed on either side of the 
central motif, it will not be necessary to blacken the lines on 
the reverse side, otherwise go over the tracing with a pencil 
on the reverse side. Moisten a rag with a little old spirits of 
turpentine, some that has thickened a little with standing, or 
else put a drop of fat oil on the rag with the ordinary spirits 
of turpentine, rub this thoroughly all over the plate or border 
then wipe off so that it shows no smears. Let this dry a few 
minutes or warm a little on a stove or alcohol lamp; lay the 
plate, face down, on the plate divider, fitting it to one of the 
circles, then with your pen and ink mark the divisions 3, 5, 6, 
as the case may be. Turn over the plate and repeat the 
mark on the face. This gives the point from which to trace 
each section, so as to evenly distribute the design. Lay your 
tracing, face down, on the plate, go over the outline with your 
pencil or a hard point of some kind. The design will be found 
lightly traced in pencil on the plate. Take your pen and ink 
and go over the design carefully making a fine outline and 
correcting the tracing where it may have slipped. Then trace 
the remaining sections, one at a time until the whole border 
is drawn. If the plate should be a little larger or smaller 
than the original copy, the design will haA^e to be lengthened 
or shortened where the sections meet. If the design is a 
balanced one, the tracing can be used first on one side, then 
on the other; if the motif is simply repeated without reversing 
the tracing may have to be gone over again with a pencil on 
the wrong side. The drawing being completed the design is 
ready for painting. If, however, a tinting has first been made 
over the entire plate and fired before putting on the design, a 
softer and more harmonious effect will be gained. 
If a plate design, however, is to be applied to a cup and 
saucer or vice versa, a more difficult problem is to be met. 
Place the cup on a circle of the plate divider, opening down- 
ward and mark on the rim the divisions desired. If the plate 
border is too wide for good proportions on a cup and saucer 
take your drawing paper and measure a straight band of the 
width desired and the same in length as the circumference 
of the cup, divide this as you have divided the cup into 3, 4, 
5, 8, etc. sections. In one of these sections draw the same 
design as the one to be copied, reducing it in size and arranging 
it to fit the straight section instead of a curve. Then make a 
tracing of this and apply to cup as directed before. An aid 
to arranging a curved design on a straight border or vice versa, 
is to draw a line through the center of both straight and 
curved border from end to end as well as from top to bottom, 
and see that in the applied copy, the different parts of the 
design touch the lines at approximately the same points. 
Then the process will have to be reversed in applying cup 
design to the saucer. The saucer design will of course, be of 
the same width as that of the cup, the only problem is to fit 
the cup section to the saucer; lay the saucer on the plate 
divider and decide which division will be nearest in length to 
the measurement of a section of the cup border, then proceed 
as in directions for designing a plate, curving the design of the 
cup border and lengthening or shortening the design where 
the sections meet. Sometimes a little portion of the design 
may have to be omitted or something added to fill the space 
or make connection. All lines which are vertical on the cup 
should run at right angles to edge ^f saucer or slate, making 
a line which if continued would strike the center of the circle. 
A good idea in adapting a cup section to saucer or plate or 
vice versa, is to draw a number of these vertical lines through 
the sections to be adapted and see that the parts of design 
touching these correspond; the change will generally have to 
be made in the lower half of the design rather than the upper 
as a curved panel is shorter at the bottom than at the top. 
Of course if yovi are expert in drawing, these helps may be 
omitted. There are some designs which will be found more 
difficult of adaptation and in a general article it is impossible 
to meet these emergencies; the only advice possible is to use 
at first only the designs which are easily adapted and as you 
become more expert you will find the more difficult problems 
easier to solve. 
EXECUTING THE DESIGN IN COLOR 
There are many styles of conventional design, more or 
less elaborate and requiring different materials and different 
handling. We will start with the simplest, a design in one 
color. The design being already drawn, the next thing is to 
fill it in with color. If flat enamel is desired, the tube Aufsetz- 
weis is nuxed with J of whatever color is desired, to this 
mixture then add I flux. Thin this with spirits of turpentine 
for small spaces or oil of lavender for large washes; if color 
alone is used, add to it \ flux and treat in the same manner as 
enamel. Use a square shader as large as can be conveniently 
handled, the larger the better as less brush marks will show — 
charge the brush off with color and the enamel mixture and 
let it flow off the brush as much as possible; when too little 
color is in the brush, the brush marks will show more. 
[to be continued] 
MACKEREL DESIGN FOR VASE-LASERRE FROM ART ET DECORATION" 
