196 
RERAMIC STUDIO 
gold is for white china, unfluxed for tinted, etc. Give them 
a general lesson in the way to wash and put away brushes. 
Let them watch you put on a grounded color and paint in 
a background, explaining fully the difference in a ground, 
a tint and a background. Encourage them to ask questions 
of you and of each other, and to help each other. Often 
one will excel in putting on a design, another in grounding 
a color, another in outlining. Let them help each other 
over some of these hard places, by showing others how to 
do what they understand best. It makes them feel that 
there is something that they really can do, and gives them 
confidence, and will teach them how to teach, if ever the 
need be. Show them how to fire a kiln, to stack it and 
understand it in an intelligent way. Make friends with 
them and let them feel how personal your interest is in each 
one. Praise their work when it is good or shows earnest 
work. Teach them to have a fine enthusiasm for it all, 
but never allow careless or badly executed work to stand, 
let them understand that work like that is without merit, 
and have it taken out, even though it loses the work of 
days. Teach them that a simple design well placed and 
well executed is worth all the badly done, overdone pieces, 
even though they be gay with gold and enamel, that the 
use of gold is to beautify and not to cover defects, and is 
only beautiful when rightly used. 
If some insist on trying at the first naturalistic work, 
let them attempt the simplest things possible, on a panel 
for instance. It is more difficult to select simple naturalistic 
designs than conventional ones, but if one must have them, 
most excellent ones are found in almost every number 
of Keramic Studio. Taken as a whole, often many of 
them are too complicated for the beginner, but parts of 
them may easily be worked out by following the directions 
given by the designers and the advice of the teacher. 
For small roses Mrs. Safford gives many designs and very 
explicit directions, follow as nearly as possible her designs 
and directions. 
Of course the class lessons are only to show a few 
general elementary principles, as they come up from time 
to time and in such a way that beginners can take ad- 
vantage of them. The more advanced students have 
already been taught these things and what they need the 
most is personal aid and advice, as their work requires. 
Every teacher of china painting, to be successful, must 
adapt herself more or less to the individual need of each 
pupil. There are even in a small class every variety of 
pupils. There will be the persevering, painstaking, hard- 
working one, who works for the pure love of it, but who 
somehow seems never to get along or turn out any cred- 
itable work. They just cannot learn how to paint china 
and yet insist on doing it. There is the pupil who is careless, 
the one who is inattentive to your instruction, the one who 
shirks at the hard work, expecting the teacher to do that, 
the one who is taking lessons to kill time or because her 
mother wants her to. Then there is the really talented 
pupil who with time and instruction will make a good 
decorator but who after a few lessons knows more than 
her teacher. For all these pupils the teacher needs to put 
on the armor of patience, perseverance and impartiality. 
Once in a while, there is the student working for art's 
sake, careful, painstaking, always Avilling to do over and 
over to bring a piece of work to perfection, who may never 
be doing any very original and brilliant work but always 
work that can be pronounced good. Then rarely, 
very rarely indeed, there comes a student both original 
and brilliant, who will be a joy and an inspiration for the 
teacher, and may be a compensation for all less satisfactory 
pupils. 
Many of the best teachers teach entirely by giving 
private lessons and doing all the work, letting the student 
watch the entire process from first to last. Generally the 
pupil watches them through the lesson and then duplicates 
the piece of work as nearly as possible under their super- 
vision. Instruction in this way is only advisable after 
one has studied and worked enough to be able to follow one 
of these expert painters intelligently. But a few hours 
instruction from them is worth months and months of lessons 
from less experienced teachers. 
A plain, flat piece of china (not too small) is the most 
advisable for a beginner to start on. A very good piece 
is a plate, say, a dinner plate. The beginner is to put on 
it some conventional design on the order of those by Mrs. 
Price in the Keramic Studio, May 1905, or some of Miss 
Mason's designs, many of which are to be found in the 
Studio. 
First make a correct tracing of design, divide plate 
into the desired number of parts, trace design on plate 
and outline in India ink. Next outline with a mixture 
made by using ^ Copenhagen Blue, + Banding Blue and 
a little Black. Fire. 
SECOND FIRE 
Paint in background § Copenhagen Blue, ^ Banding. 
Mix with enough medium to paint on evenly. When 
nearly dry, dust with Copenhagen Blue. 
THIRD FIRE 
Tint the whole plate with Neutral Yellow (mix this 
with Fry's Tinting Oil) put on as a tint and padded. If 
desired, dust with Copenhagen Blue. 
FOURTH FIRE 
Tint whole plate Deep Blue Green. 
This treatment gives a charming effect in a soft grey- 
ish greenish blue, and, in doing this piece, the pupil is 
taught to put on a conventional design, to outline, to 
paint in a one tone background, to dry dust a surface and 
to put on a tint. The plate is also very effective carried 
only through the third fire. The designs can also be 
treated by omitting the outline and painting in the back- 
ground and wiping out the design, for first fire. 
Another simple design is plate in seaweed Keramic 
Studio, November 1902, carried out in two tones of green 
and outlined in gold or black. The plate by Miss Smith, 
Keramic Studio, May 1905, was very easily done by a 
beginner by doing flowers and border in gold, leaves and 
stems in green gold, no outline. |jM 
For a vase the China Lily design by EmmaTErvin 
Keramic Studio, July 1904, is simple and effective, 
adapting itself readily to simple vase forms. 
In the Studio may be found any number of tea tiles 
in conventional designs that are especially recommended 
to beginners. They are simple in treatment, easy to handle, 
and may be carried out in color, lustre or enamel. See 
tile by Miss E. Mason, Keramic Studio, September 1904. 
For work in enamel, Mrs. Leonard has given many 
designs. A cup and saucer, October 1901, may be carried 
out in various enamels but is very good in blue and green. 
Also design in enamel by Emily F. Peacock, July 1902. 
For lustre, Miss Mason's design for coffee set could 
be used by a beginner to good effect on a tall straight vase 
or one shaped somewhat like coffee pot, or on stein. The 
greatest difficulty would be in tracing and placing cor- 
rectly the design on the piece of china. After that, outline 
in black paint, then put on gold where gold is indicated. 
