HLERAMIC STUDIO 
20 1 
We must keep the proper proportions between the details 
and the space to be decorated, avoiding over-crowding and 
collision of lines. The construction or framework must be 
good, for beauty of design depends upon excellence of con- 
struction, which must be strong enough to support the 
detail just as the branch is strong enough to support the 
leaves, flowers and fruit. If the construction is poor no 
amount of enrichment can redeem it. 
To illustrate with our study of "Facts from Roses," 
take a leaf in the abstract apart from the plant. First 
you will observe a leading line or support, the midrib and 
other ribs dependent upon this, each has a certain office to 
fulfil, the midrib supports everything, the little fibres even 
have their office to hold together the detail between the 
ribs, giving contour to the leaf; cut out the construction 
and no beauty remains. The detail of the design must be 
held together by the construction as in the leaf, else it is 
uninteresting. It is the framework that first attracts one. 
Then also the design must show the beauty and variety 
of line. In nature we do not find many lines of unvarying 
thickness neither are they pleasing in a design. Keep a 
just distribution of covered and uncovered surface, an equal 
division of background and foreground is seldom desirable. 
Mary A. Farrington, 
PLAQUE IN FOUR SHADES OF GREY GREEN— ALBERT PONS 
