I1ERAMIC STUDIO 
47 
oil. Then apply a gentle heat with a Bunsen burner, taking care not to get 
the metal too hot. 
]. T. — A fine grained wood is the best for burning . Basswood and 
white wood are usually used. 
Basketry — Rattan grows in tropical forests where it twines about the 
trees in great lengths. It is numbered by dealers according to its thickness, 
and Nos. 2, 3 and 4 are the best sizes for small baskets. For scrap baskets 
3, 5 and 6 are the best sizes. It must be thoroughly soaked before using. 
Raffia is the outer cuticle of a palm and comes mostly from Madagascar. 
It is advisable to wash the natural colored raffia in warm water with pure 
white soap, rinsing well and letting it get almost dry before using. 
K. B. — Polish the ebony, by putting on two coats of copal varnish; 
when this is dry, rub quite smooth with fine pumice stone. Put on another 
coat of the varnish and rub with rotten stone. Clean and put on a flowing 
coat of best spirit copal varnish, when this is quite dry, polish with chamois 
and the palm of the hand. 
T. C. — The blue color in turquoise is sometimes though not always un- 
stable. The original, which has been bleached or exposed to sunlight, can 
Sometimes be restored by immersing it in ammonia or by wearing the stones 
in such a way that they come in contact with the hand. 
K. S. T. — Armenian cement has been used by the Oriental jewelers 
for many years. It is made by dissolving 10 parts of gum mastic in 60 parts 
of grain alcohol. Dissolve separately 20 parts of fish glue in 100 parts of 
water by slowly heating: add to this 10 parts of alcohol. Then dissolve 5 
parts of ammonical gum in 2.5 parts of alcohol. Mix the first solution with 
the second and stir well together, add the third solution and stir. The whole 
must then be treated over hot water and reduced to 170 parts lay evapora- 
tion. 
C. P. — The leather must always be thoroughly dampened, before the 
color (spoken of in Miss Wilson's article) can be used. 
K. R. — The ordinary coppers make a fast nankeen colored dye. Dip 
your material in this and then in the indigo both for dull greens. 
Mrs. W. — The gilding of a mirror frame is quite a difficult undertaking 
The frame must first be sized carefully then the gold leaf applied. Later 
we hope to have an article on "The making of a mirror frame." 
T. O. — Aqua Regia is made from equal parts of nitric acid and muria- 
tic acid mixed; sometimes 2 parts of nitric acid to one part muriatic is used 
W. H. — Etching can be done on steel with a solution, made by mixing 
one ounce of sulphate of copper, one quarter of an ounce of alum, and one- 
half a teaspoonful of salt reduced to a powder, with 1 gill of white wine vine- 
gar and 20 drops of nitric acid. This solution will also give a frosted surface 
to the steel. 
Mrs. C. Clute— Address The Hingham Society of Arts and Crafts, 
Bingham, Mass. The industry of making Bayberry candles was revived by 
them. There was an article in Good Housekeeping last fall on the making 
of a Bayberry candle, but we do not know of any book on the subject now. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
S. M. H. — Liquid silver is used the same as liquid bright gold. Use 
from the vial as it comes, if too thick to go on smoothly thin with oil of 
lavender, if too thick it rubs off after firing or forms crackled lines, if too 
thin it may be put on and fired again, firing should be the same as for liquid 
gold or lustre, a medium hard fire. The blurred effect comes either from 
being put on too thick, moisture on the china or handling after it is put on ; 
the hand should never touch lustre or liquid bright gold or silver. Use al- 
ways a soft old piece of silk. If once blurred no succeeding fire will improve 
it. Better pat a tracing of gold over the blurred silver. 
G. — Section of Chinese plate, September 1899, page 92, all black spaces 
and outlines should be gold. The flower forms in pink flat enamels of two 
shades. The leaf scrolls in Apple Green flat enamel and an Olive Green flat 
color. The dotted background should be an ivory tint, in the border it may 
be a deep yellow or a deep blue or green. Some touches of this border color 
must be introduced somewhere in the flower forms. The design on the gold 
ground in the border may be white if the background is yellow, or if a darker 
color is used, then introduce Deep Yellow, Turquoise Blue or a rich Yellow 
Green. This design would also be very effective carried out in gold and red 
only, on an ivory ground. We will endeavor to give as handsome plate bor- 
ders in the new style as possible. 
G. B. — The best way to know what any artist who makes his own colors 
uses for rose painting is to write to him personally to recommend the proper 
colors. Each one has his own specialty and only he and his pupils can tell 
you the names of the colors. You do not say what effect you wish, so we 
can not suggest what color to wash over Ruby to tone it. Yellow Brown 
with a touch of Silver Yellow should give a tint similar to champagne color. 
Mrs. C. — Your color which chipped off on the handle was probably too 
thick, especially if you used Ruby over Black. When ground color begins 
to chip it is useless to refirc as it will continue to chip. Nothing will remove 
such a heavy color even Hydrofluoric Acid, without ruining the piece The 
only thing to do is to fill in the chips with finely ground china mixed with 
Silicate of Soda, then paint it to match the color and varnish it. 
Mrs. W. H. H. — To dust a painting when partly dry means to take pow- 
der color and brush it over the painting till no more will adhere, then brush 
off the surplus. 
Mrs. S. — The use of enamel in retouching flowers has been entirely dis- 
continued. 
P. — For tinting with Iron Reds, add } to J flux. The more flux the 
lighter the tint. 
Mrs. N. — Underglaze painting is painting on the "biscuit" or unglazed 
china, then glazing and firing at a temperature much higher than overglaze 
or painting on the glazed china. Gold in powder form comes both fluxed 
and unfluxed. Tinting oil and grounding oil are quite different. Tinting 
oil is used for light tints and grounding oil for heavy dusted color. Burnish- 
ing sand is a fine white sand which comes specially for this purpose. The 
Agate Burnisher is used on the flat side for large surfaces, on the point for 
lines and small spaces. Liquid bright gold can be used over fired color only, 
and then only over light tints. The conditions of the prize competitons will 
be found on the back cover of Keramic Studio. 
R. — Gold will fire out. or rather in if over fired; it looks then a pale 
thin yellow which will not burnish. Red fires with a blueish tone if fired too 
hard but should be fired hard enough to glaze. No painted china is proper- 
ly fired if it has not a good glaze, the higher the better, except for mat colors. 
If the gold looks pale and thin but still burnishes, it was put on too thin. 
Reds are liable to fire out and must be painted a little stronger than you 
wish them to appear. If Carmine or Rose put on medium heavy come out the 
right color, not too blue or too bricky, you have fired right. 
Mrs. E. G. F. — Add a little deep blue green to your greens if too yellow 
— ivory black may be used with greens to grey them if desired. 
The fruit borders in January Keramic Studio are supposed to extend 
around the entire rim of plate. 
Mrs. L. N. — The best color to use over the pearl grey on the plate where 
it has destroyed the reds would be a green or delft blue, but doubt if you 
would obtain entirely satisfactory results as the glaze is already loaded with 
flux from the grey and reds. 
L. G. — You will find articles on conventional work in Keramic Studio 
also in the Class Room, October to present date. Plain tints. may be 
obtained by tinting, grounding or dusting, tinting is of course padded, see 
articles in next Class Room. The only remedy where yellow eats up red in 
firing is to retouch with the red alone rather heavily. A kiln may be fired as 
often as desired, naturally the more often it is fired the quicker it will wear out. 
Mrs. H. D. W. — Gold may be removed with Hydro-fluoric acid, but the 
acid is dangerous and the glaze is also removed. Try acqua regia and save the 
washings, possibly they might be made up into working gold by following 
the recipe in Keramic Studio, we have never tried it. 
M. G. — As a general rule the names of colors of all makes correspond or 
nearly so but some individual makes have their specialties which do not ex- 
actly correspond with anything else. The principal differently named colors 
which correspond to some degree to La Croix colors are as follows : 
Albert Yellow — a mixture of Jonquil and Orange Yellow. 
Grey Green — Celadon — or for painting, Pearl Grey with a touch of Moss 
Green and Delft Blue. 
Royal Green — Emerald Stone Green and Moss Green mixed. 
Neutral Yellow — a mixture of Ivory Yellow, Capucine and a touch of 
Black, giving a greyish olive yellow. 
Orange Red — Capucine 
Pompadour Red — Carnation No. 1. 
Blue Grey or Copenhagen Blue — -Delft Blue with a touch of Black. 
Chestnut or Hair Brown — Meissen Brown or Brown 14 with a mixture 
of Yellow Brown and Carnation to make a reddish warm tone. 
Rose — Carmine 2. 
Finishing Brown— Brown 14. 
Royal Purple — Ruby Purple with Dark Blue. 
Banding Blue is a pure bright blue which does not correspond with any- 
thing in La Croix color Shading Green is Dark Green 7. We know of no list 
of colors corresponding with the La Croix make exactly. You will have to use 
your judgment as to what color effect is intended and usually you can find 
something in La Croix which will approximate. Any special color we will 
try and describe to you if you will inquire. Powder colors are mixed to the 
consistency of tube colors with an oil composed of 6 drops oil of Copaiba to 
one of oil of Cloves, then thinned for painting with spirits of turpentine. If 
you have only subscribed recently we would advise you to send for back 
numbers containing the "Class Room" from the beginning, October 1905. 
You will find in these articles every detail of the work of mineral decoration. 
For dark red roses in La Croix use Ruby Purple with Carmine 1 and 2 in 
high lights and a touch of Black or Dark Green .7 in shadows. For pink roses 
Carmine I and 2, Apple Green in greyish shadows, Jonquil or Orange Yellow 
in creamy tones. 
