254 
RERAMIC STUDIO 
DESIGN FOR THE DECORATION OF CHINA 
Caroline Hofman 
SECOND PAPER 
HAVING begun to think of design as space-division, 
and to grasp the principles which govern it, we want, 
naturally, to gather the best material to use in our work. 
And we find nothing more valuable, nor more filled with 
suggestions for beautiful pattern than plant form. These 
we will study in the ways that make them most directly 
useful to our purpose. 
The very first quality in plant-growth which the 
designer must feel and interpret is the line. 
No matter how closely he has represented parts of the 
flower or leaf, if he has failed to give the structural line, 
the direction and attachment of flower to stem and stem to 
stalk, he has fallen short of the true aim and his drawing is 
of little value in designing. A designer who is also a very 
successful teacher said to me: "When I draw plants and 
flowers I try to fix in my mind just the way they grow, the 
characteristic line. Then I do not copy each little accident 
of that particular plant, but can sieze the whole nature of 
it with a few strokes,' and get the crispness and vigorous 
growth instead of toiling over every inch of it until both 
plant and drawing are limp and lifeless." 
Everywhere plants give us strong yet delicate turns of 
line, and wonderfully graceful forms. Now if these forms 
are coarsened by careless or unsympathetic drawing, and 
then enlarged, (as they often must be,) for use in abstract 
design, what is left to us wherewith to "decorate" our china? 
Isn't it quite necessary, then, to preserve in our drawing 
the grace of proportion and charm of line? 
Flowers ! The way in which some of the best Japanese 
porcelain-painters used growing plants on their wares would 
give us modern china-painters enough to study throughout 
our lives. With them it was never a question of realistic 
arrangement, for they gave us the very spirit of nature 
with the soul of decorative art. But suppose that we are 
going to use our flower-studies in designing an abstract 
unit to repeat as a border or a surface-pattern. Then, 
quite as much, we need a careful record, in our flower-draw- 
ings, of what is most alive in the plant-form; for we must 
make our unit graceful and well proportioned even though 
it should be a bUnchy little tree or a plump little mushroom. 
Whatever it be, (unless it is wholly geometrical,) it must in 
some way suggest and follow nature. 
For our pencil-drawings we must be sure that the lead 
is rather soft, (the "B" grade is best) and it must be care- 
fully sharpened to a very fine point, with enough wood cut 
away so that we can see constantly what the point is do- 
ing. If we can possibly do so let us draw from a growing 
plant. Cut flowers will do if they have been cut with a 
good deal of stem, and even of stalk, with them, and if 
they have been long enough in water to have risen firmly 
into their natural lines. But nothing makes a more sat- 
isfactory model than a growing plant. You may only in- 
tend to draw a spray of leaves or a single flower from it, 
but you have nature herself, in her best mood, before you. 
1 In the summer there are beautiful models at every 
turn. Some weeds are delightful when treated decoratively, 
and there is rich material for the designer in a flourishing 
vegetable garden. Scarcely a vegetable that has not a 
blossom of interestinglform and delicate modeling, while 
clusters of pea-pods, and the small tomatoes with their 
fern-like leaves, might fill whole pages of our sketch-books 
and be worked into innumerable designs. 
You remember the border in one of Ghiberti's doors, 
where he has used an egg-plant in such a beautiful way. 
Whatever model we have chosen for this exercise, let 
us come to it with no previous notions as to how it ought to 
look, give no thought to the ways in which other people 
have seen it. It will tell us its story in its own way if we 
look at it with open mind and loving heart. 
First let us draw the main lines of growth, to give us 
the action and construction of the model, as well as the 
placing of the drawing upon the paper. 
Upon the feeling in these first lines all the success of 
our drawing depends; so, if our first attempt looks heavy or 
limp let us throw it aside and begin again. We shall make 
all the better, progress for this slight sacrifice. 
Having now drawn lines that express the growth, let 
us construct the rest of the drawing with relation to them, 
— in outline only, — keeping the pencil very sharp and not 
indicating any shadows. The perspective is sufficiently 
