IiERAMIC STUDIO 
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HAPPY STUDY HOURS* 
IN the beginning let me tell you that I know all about 
the struggle of the china decorator in a small town, 
— the discouragement that comes from the lack of oppor- 
tunity to study with one's "ideal" teacher, the necessity 
of doing pot-boilers all the while, that the purse may not 
be quite empty from the demands upon it, and the contend- 
ing against the unsympathetic attitude toward one's work 
of other members of the family. I've sent china to be fired 
and wept at the disappointing results. I've carried home 
china to be fired after a long day's teaching and ached and 
wept again from fatigue and worry. Will you then be- 
lieve that I want to help all you workers who feel 'far away 
and out of it? Will you feel free to write of vour vexing 
problems, whether they be of a purely technical nature or 
the sometimes delicate matter of arranging and managing 
classes large or small in or out of your own studio ? 
I realize that many workers and teachers honestly 
think they haven't time or money with which to study. 
But study doesn't necessarily mean going to the city to 
work in some private studio or school. It may mean just 
looking with loving interest and thought at what nature 
has surrounded you with. Do more than look at it, work 
with it. I never feel that I'm working alone and without 
help when I'm drawing a lovely flower or fruit growth. 
There is something about the very life of it that seems to 
give new strength with which to work, while the beauty 
of it rests and soothes one. 
Don't feel unhappy if your first drawing isn't "pretty." 
If you've drawn the "facts" of the growth, your mind and 
your folio are enriched for all time. You don't know T where 
or when you may use the drawing, but believe me, it will 
be well worth treasuring, and even if you should lose it, 
you'll have it always in your mind. When I was living 
as perhaps you are and didn't know much about drawing 
pencils or water colors, I drew and painted a clover. It 
didn't make a "hit" with the family, but this was one of my 
first brain children and I protected it as one does an ugly 
unfortunate little thing, and brought it with me to the 
city. It was six years before I again had an opportunity 
to paint a clover from nature. In all that time I scarcely 
saw one, but I used it successfully as a decoration many 
times in those years, because I had the picture in my mind, 
and the facts on paper, and my despised little old study 
probably has helped to pay many months' rent. Aside 
from the joy of drawing a thing while the life is in it, be- 
lieve me it pays. 
But we all would do so much more studying, we think, 
if we only had time. At this studio we are gaining time. 
Bet me tell you how. We were all much impressed by a 
story, in one of the Christmas magazines, which described 
a little boy whose father on the eve of his departure for a 
*Mrs. Sara Wood Safford has been engaged to illustrate these articles. 
long stay abroad, gave his son in parting a "Happy Day." 
On that day the dear old lady in whose care he was left, 
was to dress him in white and put bright pennies in his 
pockets and he was to be free from work or care and just 
be happy, and all his life he was to keep that day while. 
We all wondered how it would seem to have a whole day a 
week on which we were not to work or worry, but to play 
with the things we'd be happy with. We thought it over, 
found we were "grown ups," needing bright dollars in- 
stead of pennies, but we decided to try happy hours. It 
has worked. It is a badly paying profession indeed, or a 
good profession badly managed, that will not admit of one 
hour a week off. Even in that time you'll be surprised at 
what you can do. Save it for what you want to do most. 
A little drawing, perhaps the carrying out of some nice 
design you think won't sell, but will satisfy your hunger 
for something quiet and better. Even if you only do one 
piece a year, do it! Each quiet, thoughtful happy hour of 
chosen work will bring you rest, courage and a better un- 
derstanding and appreciation of all the ideas developed 
by your fellow workers in the craft. I've tried all the 
things I am suggesting. In that other more quiet life I 
didn't name my study days and hours. I know now, 
though, that they were happy ones and feel that some of 
. 
the impatience and discontent might have been curbed 
had I been told of a happy way out. Of course one's studio 
day seems to" have no end, but I decide now that it shall 
have, and at the close take my happy hour. It may seem 
that I accomplish very little, I may have nothing to show, 
for perhaps I have talked my hour out to a girl who must 
make money and while a spendid student, liking to develop 
and apply only the best in quiet conventional designs, she 
cannot always satisfy her patrons with this work entirely 
or in the necessarily higher price for it. One hardly dares 
breathe the word naturalistic, but after looking through 
some fine old Japanese prints and books we decided that 
all naturalistic work is not necessarily bad, any more than 
all conventional design is necessarily good. So we planned 
