RERAMIC STUDIO 
15 
PLAQUE— L. M. SOLON 
it will result in an ugly dark patch, which will break up the 
coherence and firmness of the design. After the first plane is 
completed, the tracing should be fitted to it and the most 
important masses marked on the plane as in Fig. 3. These 
should be then painted on with another coat of slip, and the 
edges graduated and levelled with the modelling tool so as to 
form simple contours. These contours should be done as far 
as possible with the slip brush, and the scraping tool will be 
required at every stage to rectify and level the brush work. 
When the contours in Fig. 3 are rounded and softened into the 
ground plane, the smaller contours and reliefs should again be 
applied with the brush, and again polished with the tool as in 
Fig. 4. The effect now is a flatfish, simple undulating relief, 
without detail. The broader details may now be applied, and 
the surface delicately modelled, and lightly scraped perfectly 
smooth as in Fig. 5. The greatest care must be taken to avoid 
carving the surface, or removing more clay than is necessary 
with the modelling tool. 
All modelling should be done with the brush, and the scrap- 
er is only used to clean the surface and smooth down the little 
unevenness of surface which will be found unavoidable. Fig. 6 
shows the method of finishing. The lines and folds of drapery, 
the hair, the key border on the vase, are all done over the 
modelled work with a very fine brush, and the effect is em- 
phasized by varying the thickness and sharpness of these lines, 
and by flattening, bevelling, and softening their edges, and 
making them die into the gi^ound in places. Dark lines and 
GLADSTONE TESTIMONIAL VASE— F. A. RHEAD 
PLAQUE— LAURENCE A. BIRKS 
other sharp touches may be incised in their proper places with 
a rounded point. If the point is too sharp, the effect will be 
scratchy. It must be well boz'ne in mind that all modelling 
must be done on the first flat plane as in Fig. 1 as a foundation, 
and no incision should penetrate below the surface, which 
must be kept the lowest plane of relief, except in the case of 
diaphanous draperies, smoke and flames, clouds, and water, 
which may be added last, when the solidity of the general mass 
is assured. It may be taken as a general rule that the finest 
effects are obtained by exaggerated softness, smoothness, and 
simplicity of modelled masses (see Fig. 5) and exaggerated 
sharpness of applied detail. The operator should not be 
troubled if the detail looks hard and crude, because the semi- 
transparency given by the partial vitrification in the fire, and 
the coating of glaze afterwards makes the whole effect soft and 
mellow. Another point to be observed is the preservation of a 
firm and uniform outline or edge. This must be obtained in 
the beginning in the first plane, and in the subsequent modelling 
this platform must be preserved. The contours may be softened 
as much as the operator pleases on this platform, and down to 
this edge, but the edge itself must not be disturbed, or a ragged 
outline will result. 
A few words as to the characteristics of pate-sur-pate may 
not be out of place. It is not modelling in bas-relief, as ex- 
emplified by the Wedgwood wares, and similar low reliefs. 
There, the contours are obtained by varying thicknesses, ex- 
pressing according to well known laws the exact degree of pro- 
jection to the spectator — in diminished, but true proportion — 
that the surfaces of the object represented do. In pate-sur- 
pate, while the rule is generally observed, there is a certain 
cheating of the eye by the emphasis given to apparent relief, 
by the darker portions, where the ground shows more or less. 
It is not painting, because actual relief is obtained, although 
the relief is not that of the Wedgwood Jasper ware, and the 
shadows or darker poitions of the design are not shadows in 
the true sense, because a shadow is dependent upon the angle 
on which the light falls, while the darker portions of a design 
in pate-sur-pate are simply the lower portions of the relief, and 
the lighter parts simply the thicker or higher parts. 
In shoil, the masses of the design in pate-sur-pate are more 
simplified and less varied in contour than those of a bas relief, 
while the details are proportionately sharper, and very much 
more accentuated. The illustration gives a good idea of M. 
