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KERAMIC STUDIO 
TREATMENT FOR DANDELION STUDY 
Mary Chase Perry 
HE design may be carried out with light 
coloring, keeping a delicate effect 
throughout, or with a deep-toned back- 
ground and rich glowing yellows in the 
flowers. The latter idea will be carried 
out in these suggestions, in which the handling of the back- 
ground plays as important a part as the painting of the flowers 
themselves. 
The dandelions and buds on the upper part of the vase are 
a pale golden yellow, while those below are deeper and more 
of an orange in tone. At the bottom they are dark and rich 
and half melted into the deep ground. Carrying out the same 
plan, the back-ground is light above, gradually shading into 
dark browns and greens. 
Paint the flowers broadly for the first firing, paying little 
attention to detail or the multitudinous petals. Make the 
shadow tones of White Rose or Brown Green, with Copenha- 
gen in the color parts. On the portions of the flowers in full 
light, use Egg and Albert Yellow, deepening with Yellow 
Ochre or Yellow Brown. The Greens are Yellow or Moss- 
greens, Brown and shading Green, for foundation colors, yet 
carry into them the colors of the flowers or back-ground where 
they would naturally reflect it. Paint the back-ground at the 
same time with the floral part, coloring the surface, rapidly 
and simply, having decided well in your mind as to the color 
values. At the top use Ivory Yellow, Yellow Brown, with a 
little Yellow Green. Lower down in the design use Sepia and 
Brown Green, and at the darkest part at the bottom, finishing 
Brown. Be sure to preserve all the little "clips" of light 
which give character to the various formations of the plant ; 
keep the silver whorls perfectly clear and soft without 
niggling. Do not be over-particular about making them 
spherical in form, as by so doing you will run the risk of giving 
them a texture of stone instead of soft down. 
When the first painting has become thoroughly dry and 
hard to the touch, deepen the back-ground tones by dusting 
on dry color. Use for the most part, the same color as the 
under-tint, except when it needs to be made warmer or cooler, 
when a little pompadour will bring about the former result, 
and Russian Green or Copenhagen the latter. Toward the 
base in particular, strengthen the colors greatly with Brown 
Green and finishing Brown, with a little Roman Purple near 
the stems. 
You will have to exercise your own taste in developing 
the color scheme, and many happy little effects, which one 
could not possibly fore-plan, will come up, which you will do 
well to take advantage of and preserve. 
If the dusting color goes into the leaves and edges of the 
design generally, it will be all the better for that, as it will 
help it to melt into the back-ground so that there will be no 
harsh edges. 
If you feel that the design has become too vague, by a 
crisp touch with a dry brush or one a trifle moistened in tur- 
pentine, the necessary accents will be suggested. 
Fire pretty hard for the first time, so that the paint will 
become thoroughly incorporated with the glaze — even at the 
sacrifice of much of your design. For the second painting 
deepen the tones which have been lost and glaze to bring the 
design into harmony. Two firings are usually sufficient when 
the colors are laid on according to the process described, but if 
a third, or even a fourth or fifth painting will enable you to 
add strength or bring up the general effect and glaze, do not 
hesitate to do so — being careful, however, to make each 
successive fire a little less strong than the one before, so as not 
to weaken the under painting. 
•f <$> 
"KERAMIC" VERSUS " CERAMIC n 
IT may be interesting to those who ask why we use the word 
Keramic instead of Ceramic, so we print a letter written 
some years ago, when the National League of Mineral Paint- 
ers published a little paper. This letter was written to the 
editor of that paper. 
New York, Nov. 9, 1896. 
THE COLLEGE OF THE | 
CITY OF NEW YORK. 
Dear Madam : 
Your letter of inquiry of the 6th inst., was duly received 
and I reply in haste, at my first opportunity. 
If the matter of writing and pronouncing the word you 
mention was to be determined by its Greek spelling and pro- 
nunciation the matter would be very simple. The original 
word is Greek and the stem is xspajxix, which in English 
would be pronounced Keramic. 
The word as we have it is considered an English word, 
and the English orthography and pronunciation has in the 
past, and to a great extent in the present, little respect for 
etymology, i. e., the derivation of a word. As the writing 
and pronunciation of English words is determined by good use, 
it will be useless for anyone to set up against that good use — 
even if really bad — as it occurs in dictionaries and the best 
writers. 
Good use in respect to this word in English seems to be 
undergoing a change. In Webster's old edition the word is 
given Ceramic (from seramic), and Keramic does not occur. 
In Webster's latest, Ceramic is given and with it the form 
Keramic. In the Century Dictionary both Ceramic (from 
seramic) and Keramic are given. In the Standard (latest) the 
word is given Ceramic (from seramic) and Keramic us a. variant. 
It will appear then that the English form Kcramic the same 
as the Greek is being established, while formerly only the form 
Ceramic was used. 
The use of Ceramic (from seramic) is, in my opinion, 
erroneous, and came about in the following way : The Latin C 
corresponds almost entirely to the Greek K, the Latin using 
C, an old form of Greek K, with the same sound as the letter 
K in Greek and English. All Greek and Latin works coming 
into English and beginning with C, had the sound of S given 
to C wherever C was followed by c, i or y, and the hard sound 
of K before a, and 11. Thus Cyrus was pronounced Syrus, 
Cato — Kato, etc., etc. In this way Ceramic was pronounced 
ceramique in French with the S sound. 
Now, since 1869, in this country, we have been trying in 
Latin and Greek to restore the original pronunciation, making 
C in all Latin and Greek words in English have the hard, or 
K sound, and when possible restoring the original K. 
This is really the best I can do in haste. 
Fitzgerald Tisdall. 
Heraldic colors on china: Gules — carnation ; Azure— deep 
blue-green; Or — canary, gold; Vert— emerald-stone green-. 
Sable — black; Purpure— purple 2; Argent — white, silver; 
Tenne— yellow red; Sanguine — blood red. 
