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KERAMIC STUDIO 
TEXTILE DESIGNING 
Albert W. Heckman 
ALL branches of Art are related. It may seem redundant 
to say this, yet there are many of us who do not know 
how intimately they are related. It is especially true of the 
applied arts, which are not only closely interrelated but often 
dependent upon each other. The success we have with one 
is often in proportion to the knowledge we have of the others. 
We know that the same underlying principles of Line, Mass 
and Color which govern the production of a fine design for a 
vase or a bowl are applicable to the making of a design for a 
rug, a wall paper or a textile, and, while we may have confidence 
in our ability to do the one, we hesitate to do the other, which 
we ought to do equally well. No one who ever does a thing- 
well in one branch of the applied arts is without ability in the 
other branches. 
Undoubtedly there are many china decorators who design 
things other than their wares. On the other hand, there are 
many who do not, but who have extra time at their disposal 
and would like to make some practical use of it. For their 
benefit, as well as the student of design in general, I am giving 
a few suggestions about the making of a saleable textile 
design. 
There are many kinds of^textile designs, some of which 
are made to be reproduced by weaving, some by printing and 
some by various other processes. To encompass the whole 
subject in this short paper would be impossible. However, 
there is one phase of the subject that is within our reach. It 
is the designing of textiles to be printed. It is this branch too, 
which is of special interest to-day because of the demand for 
that particular kind of textile design. 
Just at present china is scarce, and the future of the 
china painter is somewhat precarious. This is due in part we 
know to the war. On the other hand the war has caused a 
demand for textile designs. In the past, many of our leading- 
manufacturers have used foreign designs and foreign trained 
designers. Now many of the sources are cut off entirely and 
they are obliged to look to the artists of America for help. It 
is up to us to meet the demand and supply it with designs that 
are worth while, practically and artistically. No one is more 
fitted to undertake the task than is the ceramic artist, for, as 
a rule she has made the study of textiles part of her training, 
and furthert, the trend that china decoration has taken towards 
conventional treatment and pattern design is in itself an ample 
basis for the execution of creditable work in some of the allied 
branches of design. 
The two plates on pages 143 and 144 illustrate in a brief 
manner one way of making a simple textile design. Plate I is 
a miscellaneous collection of motifs derived from nature. The 
other plate shows the variation and adaptation of one of these 
motifs to two designs. In like manner other of the motifs 
cam be varied and adapted. 
Just as there is a difference in designs one might make 
for a punch bowl or a tea set, so there is a difference in designs 
for various sorts of cloth. In making a design one must first 
of all consider for what kind of material it is to be used and then 
plan it accordingly. 
Printed designs are reproduced from copper rollers, the 
sizes of which vary. The design is engraved on the roller, and 
after the design has served its purpose, it is ground off and 
a new one is put on. Rollers used for printing a design on 
silk are sixteen inches in circumference. They are used until 
repeated grinding, in the application of new designs, has re- 
duced the circumference to fifteen inches. They are then 
discarded. Therefore, any design which repeats within a 
space from fifteen to sixteen inches can be used on a roller for 
the printing of silk. In like manner rollers for printing cotton 
material vary from eighteen to sixteen inches in circumference. 
The width of the rollers varies too, but that need not neces- 
sarily be considered. 
In planning a design which must conform to a given area 
of repetition it is often convenient to build skeleton lines of 
squares, triangles or diamonds in which the motif is to fall. 
However, it is not advisable to resort to their use too much in 
textile designing, for the tendency is to a certain stiffness and 
rigidity of feeling, which is anything except that which is to be 
desired in many instances. A few trials with a few failures are 
all that is needed to overcome any inability to make a design 
repeat properly within the given space of fifteen, sixteen of 
eighteen inches. A few things can be borne in mind which 
will help in planning the repeat. For instance, on a sixteen 
inch roller, a four, a five and a third, an eight inch or any other 
some such division can be used. Often two different units 
are made to repeat alternately. In such a case there must be 
an even number of divisions. Otherwise the units will not 
repeat properly. The two designs illustrated are for silk and 
they repeat at every four inches. 
Color is one of the things that must be given the utmost 
consideration in the making of a practical design. It is one of 
the first things that manufacturers consider in buying a design. 
Designs in few colors cost less, of course, to print than those 
which have many, for each added color means additional 
expense in printing. It is best to make eight the maximum 
number of colors to be used at any time. Many very excel- 
lent designs have been made in only two, three or four colors. 
If the design is of unusual merit a manufacturer will go to the 
expense of using more than eight colors, but this is seldom done. 
Any kind of paper which is not too highly finished will do to 
work on and water colors, tempera or distemper colors are used 
by practically every professional designer. It is not necessary 
to make the designs in black and white like the ones illustrated, 
nor is it necessary to show more than one repeat of the motif. 
But it is advisable to always show one's work to its best advan- 
tage and it is seldom that one repeat will do it, especially if the 
repeat is a small one. Then too, several color schemes of one 
design may be an added inducement to some prospective buyer. 
Take for example the design at the left of page 143 and try it 
in several color schemes. First paint it in one color, an old 
blue, on a grey green ground. Then make another on a yellow 
ochre ground using black for the motif as illustrated. Add 
spots of vermilion red for the berries and dull olive green for 
the leaves. Leave a little edge of background color around 
the berries and leaves. For a third color scheme, say of two 
colors, try an emerald green and a dull light violet on a grey 
white ground. Paint in the whole design with the emerald 
green and add the violet for the berries, leaving a little of the 
background space around them as in the preceeding one. A 
good scrubbing is a great help in uniting any design on a white 
ground to that ground and will often give a finished appearance 
which approaches that of the real textile. Compare the three 
designs and you will see the possibilities there are in one design 
by simply varying the color schemes. Colored paper can be 
used to work on, in which event, it should be the color of the 
material to be printed. It is difficult however to find a paper 
that is the exact color and tone that one wants so it is best to 
prepare a white paper with a wash of color. Needless to say, 
the most artistic things are made in this way. 
The persistent advertiser is the one who gets the business. 
