164 
KERAMIC STUDIO 
CALIFORNIA POPPY FOR BOX— EDNA GAMBLE 
This design may also be used for china plate in flat enamels. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
This column is only for subscribers whose names appear upon our list. Please 
do not send stamped envelopes for reply. The editors can answer questions only 
in this column. 
R. S. — If your Aufsetzweis with % flux comes out of the kiln chalky and 
unglazed, it has had insufficient firing. It should always have the hottest 
place in the kiln. 
Mrs. C. D. W.— For Chinese plate, October, 1901, use the finest India 
ink pen for outlining. For black use the powder color— German or Outlining 
Black — mix with fat oil to the consistency of tube colors and thin with tur- 
pentine, or mix with a thin syrup made of sugar and water. 
In Poppy Plate No. 2 — Also plate by Babcock — Lay the colors in flowers 
and leaves, etc., perfectly flat. It is seldom desirable to shade in conven- 
tional work. Your scheme for chocolate set in browns, acorn design, should 
be very effective. We prefer conventional arrangement tor tableware, how- 
ever. If none of the designs already published in K. S. are suitable for your 
6 cup teapot, make us a drawing of shape and size and suggest the flower 
you would like and we will publish a design for it at the earliest possible date. 
L D.— Your dinner set in violets we would prefer decorated uniformly, 
using a good violet tint if desired — the violets themselves need not be uni- 
form in shade, as violets vary from a blueish to a pinkish tone. Royal pur- 
ple and banding blue of the powder colors are very good shades for violets. 
We would mix a tint in regular proportions so it can be repeated on the whole 
set, then use the same colors for painting. This should give a uniform effect. 
F. M. S.— There is no book on modern (Ceramics in America excepting 
Mr. Edwin Atlee Barber's "Pottery and Porcelain of the United States," 
which we can procure for you at $3.50. (Second edition just out). The 
decorations of the Newcomb pottery are principally in blues, greens and 
greys, the designs being conventionalized from Southern plants. The 
Zanesville pottery is not so artistic as the Rookwood either in design or 
execution, many pieces being inferior imitations of the early Rookwood. 
The decorations of both are underglaze, but their processes are their own 
secrets. The Rookwood Pottery is considered the best decorated ware. 
Grueby ware has a beauty of its own and ranks equally as high, but it has 
little decoration beyond its modelling, color and glaze. It would be difficult 
to place the other potteries in order of their merit. Many individual pot- 
teries are doing more artistic work than the large potteries. Newcomb 
College Pottery is the work of students, Dedham Pottery the work of Mr. 
Robertson, Hiloxi of Geo. Ohr, Volkmar Pottery of Charles Volkmar. etc., 
etc. It is impossible to say how many professional decorators there are in 
the country; the number reaches up in the thousands. 
Mrs. T. T. R. — If you cannot get the shade of rich dark red you wish by 
using ruby or roman purple and finishing brown, try modelling in blood red 
or pompadour for first fire and model with the ruby, etc., for second fire. It 
would hardly do to mix the iron reds and gold colors in the same fire. 
Miss A. M. S. — For gold and paste work with a pen, use a crow quill or 
fine India ink pen. Mix your gold, etc., to the proper consistency, and put in 
a small well-like dish to avoid quick drying, then dip your pen in as if it were 
ink. 
