KERAMIC STUDIO 
109 
MRS. HENRIETTA BARCLAY PAIST - Page Editor 
2298 Commonwealth Ave., St. Paul, Minn. 
CONSTRUCTIVE DESIGN VS. ADAPTATION 
FROM time to time it is necessary to pull ourselves up and 
enquire whither we are tending. To recall, truths of 
which we are all aware and to which we give theoretical assent 
but fail to live up to. We need them for ballast and should not 
throw them overboard or lock them up and lose the key. 
For years we have been conscientiously studying to learn 
what constitutes a legitimate decoration. The answer which 
must appeal to all sincere workers as logical is that a decora- 
tion should be (or at least appear to be) organic — and not an 
afterthought; that it should be consistent with the shape 
and purpose of the object decorated. 
How much of the present decoration will stand the test 
of that definition? How much conforms to the structural 
demands of the piece and how much is frankly applied ornament? 
The demand is constantly for something different. So instead 
of evolving something from our inner worst consciences, 
we dip here and there through the past in search of the motifs 
— and adapt these — even aping the crude drawing and making 
these limitations of the workers ours. It is one thing to study, 
for the sake of pure knowledge and inspiration, the products 
of the past. It is wholly different to cull from the past, 
copy characteristics and fall into the crude drawing which 
was the result of limitations which are not ours. 
What trend has our ambition taken and where will it 
lead? Certainly not to a characteristic type of decorated 
pottery and porcelain for the museums of the future, if each 
succeeding year finds us facing backwards trying to absorb 
the characteristics of a different race. True, America is a 
melting pot and perhaps we will have to exhaust the past 
before we can fuse the result into a homogeneous mass. 
American architecture went through all this process of assimi- 
lation before evolving anything characteristic. Evolution 
moves slowly and sometimes "steady by jerks;" just now we 
are on the lower round of the spiral and it takes an optimist 
to see that we are moving forward. So while I rant I try to 
think that all this experimenting is a part of the game. Some 
day we'll tire of copying the "ancients" and face about and 
try to evolve something from our innermost shrines. There 
are "hidden fields" unexplored within each of us — we have 
access to the "Realm of Ideas." Let us not forget this — nor 
what we have learned of the underlying principles which govern 
the " orderly arrangment of an idea." Let us not forget to be 
architects and in building let us remind ourselves that the 
real inspiration comes from within — all outside inspiration is 
only supplementary. And furthermore let us not forget that 
we once learned to draw and were proud of the achievement 
and that we have not the excuse of limitation that primitive 
folk had. We have access to everything which should make 
for good draughtsmanship and technical excellence. Sim- 
plicity is a desirable characteristic but simplicity is not crudity 
The curve is still the "line of beauty" and the laws of harmony 
remain the same. Nature still supplies us with motifs and 
suggests laws of construction. The age in which we work is 
vastly in advance of any other. We are on an eminence from 
which we can view the past. Let us not lose ourselves in 
contemplation but remember we are the accumulated result 
of all that is past and should have a tale of our own to tell for 
posterity. 
All art, as a part of civilization, is in a chaotic transitional 
stage. Emotion is for the moment rampant. Modernism 
so called is not so much modernism as a temporary reversion 
to barbarism — to the primitive. It's a convulsion — but it 
will pass and then we'll have to take stock and see what is 
left that is sane, wholesome and constructive. It is not a 
bad idea to take a pre-inventory survey once in a while, it 
keeps us level. 
K K 
DESIGN UNIT— BUTTERFLIES 
THE unit of butterflies shown this month is adaptable to 
many shapes, but will be found especially suitable 
for bowls, where from three to five units may be used on the 
outside and held together by color 
bands and abstract lines. One unit 
may be used in the bottom of the bowl 
and a smaller abstract border near the 
edge with color band and edge of 
bowl in color. The design will be most 
effective in enamels but can also be 
treated with lustres of brilliant hues. 
If done in enamels it will not need 
the fired black outline, but if in 
lustres or flat color the outline should be used. Butterflies 
are of such brilliant and varied hues that one can hardly go 
amiss if one's sense of color harmony has been developed. 
Next month I shall show adaptations of this unit to different 
shapes with variations of the theme. 
