IOO 
RERAMIC STUDIO 
ORGANIZED EFFORT 
ad before the National League of Mineral Painters, June 4, 1901, by 
Mrs. S. S. Fraekleton, first President.! 
HE power of organization appeals to us at this 
time as at no other epoch in the history of 
our civilization. It gives a tremendous force 
wherever it is applied, either as a stimulus 
or a restraint. Organization produces con- 
centration: concentration, force: this con- 
centrated force allows a great economy of personal effort. 
This is an age of organization : capital, labor, society, charity, 
and the sciences have attained marvels by it, and art must 
keep abreast with the times. That civilization may breathe 
pure air, art must not be smothered by the smoke of factory 
chimneys or ground between the wheels of machinery. 
When this League was formed, some ten years since, 
there were a few individual workers scattered over the broad 
face of this great land, wandering in the mists and mysteries 
of the unknown ; groping painfully but determinedly after a 
" little knowledge " which is a " dangerous thing." The work 
of the Cincinnati women at the Centennial Exhibition lighted 
a brilliant little spark which in time became a running prairie 
fire. This result was attained because the work was shown at 
an exhibition center, the first great organized effort of the 
kind in our country. 
As time passed, individual workers began to hear of one 
another, and to form themselves into little bands or clubs. 
Sometimes only "two or three were gathered together," but 
when their work was sincere, it became a prayer that always 
received a response. The benefit of organization was quickly 
sensed, an atmosphere was created which was helpful and 
stimulating, and they began to acquire a "point of view," but 
always dimmed by the floating veil of mystery which hung 
swaying before it. A great fiat had been thundered forth 
from the clear sky: only French porcelains must be used, 
only French colors. Only one factory with one mark could 
make this " right " ware : all else was false : nothing else would 
fire: no other glaze would develop color: on nothing else 
would the gold wear. There is more than one of us here who 
remember these times and can recall the thrill of delight 
sweeping the cobwebs from the sky with her own personal 
broom, having the inspiring idea at the moment that she was 
doing something phenomenally daring. The portable kiln 
was the first real liberator. Firing seemed little short of 
witchcraft, and flux was the unknown quantity which con- 
trolled fate. 
The hopeless little anguishes one has suffered from flux 
in the beginning! The first pieces of porcelain that I 
attempted to decorate were sent from Wisconsin to New York 
to be fired. On their return the information came with them 
that the carmines were " off color," because there was too 
much flux used, that the blues were grey and raw because 
there was too little, etc., etc. All the time I was guiltless of 
having used any, and was innocent of the existence of the 
"flowing material" until the receipt of this same epistle 
which stated that the amount to exactly develop the best 
chemical results from the various colors must be most care- 
fully determined by systematic and repeated experiments, the 
flux and color to be accurately weighed in chemists scales, 
etc., etc. " Repeated experiments " — to the woman in Wis- 
consin or Utah, or Colorado, or California! — " Repeated Ex- 
periments ! " and the kiln in New York. 
Then the delightful independence when this wonderful 
kiln had been captured, tamed and turned into a comfortable 
" house cat." The lovely times one could have in the seclu- 
sion of one's own cellar, doing the things which one ought not 
to do, and leaving undone those things which one ought to 
have done, and having them come out all right half the time. 
The beginners and workers of to-day cannot realize the 
pangs or joys that the pioneers have passed through, for so 
much has been made possible and simple in these days through 
organization. The great wave of overglaze decorating has 
flooded the country, and though many a voice has been raised 
in captious comment, few persons realize the important 
impetus it has given to American and foreign manufactures. 
The American woman has an insatiable appetite for "new 
things," but she is learning, is acquiring discrimination. She 
senses her lack or she would not be uncertain of herself, and 
afraid she may grow tired of them. No one grows tired of a 
simple pure form : of an American corn jar or a Greek 
amphora. 
Before this bee of novel forms began its buzzing in the 
American bonnet, the European factories made the same 
patterns of table ware, year in and year out, the same designs 
for vases. Getting out a new shape was a serious matter : one 
to be approached with prayer and fasting — and money! 
But ! — suddenly Mary Ellen appeared upon the scene with the 
glory of the Stars and Stripes all about her, American eagles 
in her pocket book, and a paint brush in her hand ! She 
demanded " something new." The supply came ! It has kept 
coming ! It is going to come ! 
But she ! what has she not done in her time with that 
fateful paint brush ! What awful and astonishing things has 
she not wrought upon her" china"! But we are arriving. 
All this has been a necessary phase of growth. We must not 
expect Mary Ellen to pose as a mushroom or a Jonah's gourd 
— a thing matured in a night or a day. Consider our pottery 
industry now and twenty years ago. I do not mean to say 
that women have made these changes in a positive physical 
sense, but they have had their fingers in the mud pie, and 
with marked results. 
The chairs of keramics and clay-making in our several 
State Universities are the direct result of the Columbian Ex- 
position. So also is the American Keramic Society. It is 
my sincere desire that this League of ours should affiliate 
itself with the General Federation of Women's Clubs that we 
may be in touch with the progressive thought of women in 
all lines, that we may secure recognition and encouragement 
from our intercourse with them, and give to them of our ideals 
and efforts. Surely you remember the old Roman lictors 
with their bundles of rods ; the strong whole which is created 
by securely binding the many weak rods together; and their 
motto, " In union is strength " ? We must recognize a national 
feeling and be loyal to it, and we must stand by our American 
potters, raise their standard by recognizing merit, not discrim- 
inating against them as has so long been the discouraging 
fashion. How best can we accomplish this? Only by organ- 
ized effort. 
Potting, as a manufacture, is flourishing. As an art it 
has been almost lost sight of, overshadowed by the legion of 
decorators and the greed of manufacturers. But the potter is 
no new person. She was here in her blanket and moccasins, 
her beads and bright colors, long before Mary Ellen was bred 
upon these shores. For the centuries of the past hers was the 
"Art of Arts" hers, the glory and the beauty of true handi- 
craft. She had no potter's wheel ! Later in Egypt it was 
used, and later in India they copied her designs in their far- 
famed weavings. The eyes of the serpent from the temple of 
