Vol. XV. No. 12. 
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK 
April 191 4 
LAS and alack! What a swarm of 
bees about the editor's head ! "Such 
a business!" as the funny papers put 
it. That number full of summer 
school work which the editor thought 
was going to be so helpful, not only 
in the good material for design, but 
as a sort of free object lesson, has 
brought a perfect storm of disap- 
proval from a couple of our good 
naturalistic friends. Tut! Tut! as mother used to say. Ex- 
cept for one consolation the editor would have been annihilated, 
but as one of our subscribers naively puts it: "Hundreds would 
write what they thought, but they do not want to be shown up 
and belittled in your editorial where, of course, you have all the 
advantage as to what you will publish about the few that dare 
say anything." You see there is always the satisfaction that 
no one can "talk back" in print unless the editor wishes it. But 
to tell the truth, there is nothing the editor enjoys so much as 
these letters of criticism, for while there is often much that 
shows only lack of instruction, there is hardly one letter but the 
editor can extract some honey from it, some idea that is helpful, 
either as a regulator of too great enthusiasm in the forward 
march, or as an inspiration for an editorial, and the latter espe- 
cially is a god-send after these fifteen years of trying to fill the 
editorial page with something either entertaining or instructive. 
And one thing let us assure our good correspondents and that is, 
there is no criticism that we would not publish, and that, not to 
belittle the writer, but because it gives us the opportunity of 
clearing the atmosphere for a number that think likewise. Any 
one who wants to "talk back" can always be sure of room on the 
editorial page except for personalities. We draw the line at 
"naming names." Now to give you the gist of the last bunch of 
letters laid upon the editorial table. 
The first letter to bring joy to our heart was as follows, 
omitting the "naming of names:" 
"Will you allow a subscriber to make a criticism? In look- 
ing over the February number, I find it contains twenty-six 
pages of supposedly artistic (?) designs— three of which are really 
pretty. The January number was just as bad, if anything, a 
little worse. 
If any one had given me * * * I would have allowed my 
maid to have had the sole handling of them. She is an expert 
dish smasher, so my teeth would not be ground down so very 
far before they were out of the way. Why not cut out all this 
Futurist and Cubist stuft', and give us designs that are patterned 
after the leaves and flowei-s that the good Lord made. They 
are plenty good enough for me. Forty cents a month is not a 
high price to pay for an instructive book, but if I had to earn my 
bread and butter with the ideas I have gleaned from the Ke- 
ramic Studio lately, I don't think I'd eat bread and butter. I'd 
be down to Uneeda biscuit and no butter. All these art exhibrts 
and picnics are very fine to read about, but what your subscrib- 
ers want are ideas that bring in dollars and cents. For forty 
cents I can buy a folder of six designs, in colors, that are beauties 
and mioney-getters, and that is what the most of us are working 
for. In the^January number there is an appeal for a larger sub- 
scription list. Make the magazine worth while — every page 
full of something worth while— not conventionaUzed pumpkins, 
roosters and squashes, and the subscription list will take care of 
itself." 
Now that's the sort of letter we like to get, a good, smash- 
ing, honest blow from the shoulder. It matters little that the 
fault generally lies with the readers when they are unable to ex- 
tract ideas from the pages of Keramic Studio. The truth that 
comes home to us is that we should not allow the entire contents 
of Keramic Studio to be over the heads of any of its readers. We 
shall try to keep this in mind and not give too much space to the 
graduating class. Although, to paraphrase our great Lincoln, 
while we may be able to please some of our readers all the time, 
and all of our readers some of the time, we can never hope to 
please all of our readeis all the time. But to return to our good 
friend's letter. Apropos of the "designs patterned after leaves 
and flowers the good Lord made," we are going to take the lib- 
erty of quoting from the manuscript of a text-book on design by 
Mrs. Henrietta Barclay Paist, which we are considering for pub- 
lication. 
"Art appreciation does not spring full grown, but is 
of slow growth and comes of association with the artistic in 
our daily life. . . The introduction of china decoration into 
this country was premature. . . we knew little or nothing 
of design, the foundation of all crafts. . . When represent- 
atives of old-world factories in which flower painting was the 
chief characteristic, came to this country, we followed blindly. 
. . so we copied and our pupils in turn copied us, and we 
became degenerate "copyists of copies." Then to paint a rose 
or a bunch of grapes 'so naturally that it could be picked,' was 
our highest ambition." 
"There is little in nature that is ready made to the hand of 
the artist. A masterpiece of art is what it is by virtue of some- 
thing which was not in the natural motif, but in the artist's 
treatment of it." — Louis Day. 
"The designer in the application of his art to material use 
must put away from him all the allurements of imitative natu- 
ralism, except so far as it may be subordinated to the effect and 
purpose of the whole." — Walter Crane. 
"As designers we will of course appeal largely to nature for 
inspiration. To the artist, nature has hidden meanings not re- 
vealed to the untrained mind. . . We must remember that 
the function of art is to represent and suggest, but not to i'tni- 
tate." 
"People are gr-owing away from the picture book stage of 
understanding. . . We can dispense with the natural motif, 
but with nature as our ally, our imagination is stimulated and 
strengthened. . . We must have our portfolio full of draw- 
ings and we may study nature . . but it matters little what 
the motif chosen, provided we have an understanding of the 
principles of construction, space and mass relation. Much as 
we love nature forms and hard as it is at times to give up the 
identity, we must acknowledge that the beauty of a design de- 
pends in the final analysis, not on the motif or pictorial interest, 
but on structural fitness to purpose and the relation of lines, 
tones and areas. Nature study may furnish thought for ex- 
pression, but design furnishes expression for thought." 
While it seems to us that even at the admitted rate of "three 
really pretty designs" to an issue, Keramic Studio is giving forty 
cents worth, even though the writer of the above letter can buy 
"six designs in color for the same price that are money getters," 
(Continued .anjmge 224) 
