RERAMIC STUDIO 
DESIGN OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN PERIOD 
DESIGN FOR THE DECORATION OF CHINA 
Caroline Hofman 
[This series of articles has been reviewed and indorsed by Mr. Ralph 
Helm Johonnot, Instructor in Composition and Design at Pratt Institute.] 
INTRODUCTION 
THE thoroughly trained workman is the successful 
workman in any line of service and bread winning, 
whether craft, business, or profession. The trained mind, 
the practiced hand, will win the prizes in the long run, and 
so receive the reward of careful preparation. 
For a while it may be possible for the careless worker and 
the thoughtless designer to hold a public, but always the 
hold is brief and the returns small. 
What is true of our own craft is equally true of the 
others; but although most of the statements made, and all 
of the principles followed in these articles are applicable to 
a wider field of decorative art, our present concern is for 
the one craft, and we will follow that, leaving our readers to 
carry the methods and principles into other fields if they 
choose to do so. Considering, then, our own craft; the 
trained worker thinks out his whole plan of decoration at 
the outset, building (spacing) it upon the shape of the 
piece to be decorated; and then hunts for the details he 
may omit, knowing that his design will be finer, stronger 
and more enduring for each unnecessary stroke left out. 
Concentrating his effort upon the three essentials of all 
beautiful decoration; good dark-and-light pattern, graceful 
line and proportion, and harmonious coloring, he works 
out his design with care and love and patience. 
With this effort constantly brought to bear upon his 
chosen handicraft he will cultivate the keen appreciation 
of beauty which is the chief characteristic of the master- 
craftsman. 
The student of design who will test his work honestly 
at each step of the way, by considering whether he is putting 
into it something of these three qualities, will shorten his 
way toward success by many a weary and discouraged day. 
The earnest student will soon recognize the forms that are 
beautiful and the colors that harmonize. 
His business is to make something beautiful; and in 
just so far as he succeeds does he entitle himself to a stand- 
ing in his^art. 
The student will reach the best results in the most direct 
way, (shall we not, as artists, look for directions and thor- 
oughness, rather than "quick methods.") by trying to 
master the first exercises in "space art" before undertaking 
anything ambitious. 
"To do a great thing is to do a simple thing better 
than anyone else has done it." You do not know what 
possibilities of originality may be in your nature. Make 
each design, however simple, express yourself alone; your 
own taste, your own judgment, your own sense of propor- 
tion; and you will soon see that you are growing and develop- 
ing in your art. There is no reason why, with ordinary 
knowledge of line and color such as the beginner in china- 
decoration must possess, he should not, from the first, pro- 
duce interesting work. But the student who intends to 
master his art, must be content to go slowly at first, realizing 
that more ambitious things can only be reached step by step. 
The artist-nature, always enthusiastic and eager, is in 
an ecstasy of joy while creating, but perhaps sees, the next 
day, that what he created is so faulty or common-place as 
to mortify and discourage him. 
The surest way to avoid these wearing alternations of 
hope and discouragement and to keep the attitude of mind 
that is truly workman-like, is to attempt only a little 
progress at a time, limiting ourselves strictly in the elements 
of decoration to be used; and then, by faithful effort, to 
accomplish that little skillfully. 
PORTRAIT BY FRANZ HALS 
