KERAMIC STUDIO 
103 
BEGINNERS' CORNER 
JESSIE M. BARD, Editor, Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, Pa. 
SEDJI FLOWER POT AND SAUCER 
Marguerite Cameron 
FIRST fire — Paint heavy outlines Black. Second fire — 
Paint top of pot and edge of saucer with Olive and Dark 
Green half and half, flowers Bright Silver. 
This design may be used for a cup and saucer or any 
round surface. One of the first lessons in china decoration 
should be neatness, for you cannot get beautiful, happy results 
when working in an untidy careless manner, so clean the china 
well, then divide it in as many sections as the design requires. 
A plate divider can be used and is a great time saver but if you 
have none, a straight strip of paper may be used instead, the 
narrow paper that comes on a bolt of ribbon is good to use 
for this. Use India ink for marking and not a china marking 
pencil as the pencil makes a broad mark usually and the width 
of a line might throw you out in your divisions. A No. 
short haired outlining brush is good for all ink outlining. Mark 
a space on your paper the width between the two dotted lines 
on the study and then place a fine ink mark at the top of the 
cup and from this measure off the spaces all around the cup 
the width of the markings on your paper. If it does not come 
out even either make each section a little larger or smaller 
whichever is easiest to adjust in the design. One of Hasburg's 
new Keramic Gauges is very useful in getting the design on 
even. Set it to the width from the top of the cup to the nearest 
band and draw a line all around the cup and then go over it 
in a fine ink line. Learn to make very neat narrow grey lines. 
Take a piece of transparent tracing paper, lay it over the design 
and make a careful tracing of a complete section of the design; 
this can be done with a fine pen and ink, put the dotted lines 
on also. Plastiline is a modeling wax and is used to hold the 
design in place on the china while transferring it; this can be 
bought from any art dealer. Place two little pieces of it on the 
china so that it will come on each edge of the paper and lay 
your tracing on the china so that the dotted lines will be over 
the division marks on the china and also be sure that the upper 
band is over the horizontal line on the cup, this will prevent 
the design from being placed higher in one section than in 
another. Tear off a small piece of grey graphite paper (do not 
use a heavy black carbon as it will interfere with your work) 
slip it under the design carbon side down and then with a sharp 
7 H pencil go over the lines on the design. After you have 
two or three sections traced in, go over the design on the china 
with the India ink. Keep the design before you and watch 
all spaces making the necessary corrections as you ink; the 
hand is usually a little unsteady with a pencil and the carbon 
tracing will not always be correct so that it will be necessary 
to make corrections. Do not depend on making these cor- 
rections with the gold or color but make them all in this ink 
drawing.' After the design is carefully inked all around the 
cup, clear off all wax marks and any other soil that may be on 
the china. Take a box of Green Gold and with a clean palette 
knife remove a little of it on to a clean glass and rub it up with 
enough Garden Lavender Oil to make it the consistency of 
thick cream. It is best to just put out enough gold to use at 
the time to keep it clean and it also is easier to rub a small 
quantity through thoroughly than a large amount and insures 
better work. A good device for dropping the right amount of 
lavender on the gold is to take either a large brush handle or a 
deer-foot orange stick, cut it the length of the bottle, sharpen 
the end to a point and stick it in the cork of the bottle and in 
this manner the lavender can be dropped out instead of pouring. 
Apply the gold with a No. 2 Winsor & Newton Red Sable 
pointed water color brush. This brush should not be used for 
anything except gold and should be kept perfectly clean. Apply 
the gold rather thin as Green Gold does not burnish well if 
applied too heavy. All of the black in the design is to be in 
Gold. When the gold is all on, clean all division lines from the 
china and it is ready to fire. Put a drop of lavender on the 
glass and rub the brush in this and work out all the gold you 
can and then clean the brush in wood alcohol that has been 
placed for this purpose in a corked bottle. This gold can be 
saved. 
Second Fire — Burnish the gold with a glass brush rubbing 
it back and forth with a regular motion until the gold looks 
bright. Tint the grey edge of the cup and saucer with a thin 
wash of half Apple Green and half Yellow Green and paint the 
grey tones in the flowers with Albert Yellow and a little Yellow 
Brown, being careful to keep the paint off the gold. A No. 
4 pointed camel's hair brush should be used for the flowers, 
and a No. 5 or 6 square shader for the tint. Go over all gold 
again the same as in first fire. 
Caution— Be sure to have all ink work in very grey and 
very narrow lines. Practice on a piece of china until you suc- 
ceed. The secret is to get just the right amount of ink in the 
brush; keep the brush in a good point and bear down very 
lightly while working as the harder you bear down the wider 
the lines will become. Be sure that there are no finger or 
paint marks left oh the china or under it before it goes to the 
fire and above all things "Be Neat." 
» K 
A SUGGESTION 
Mrs. H. A. Lillibridge 
IN teaching and firing for others I notice that the greatest 
fault is in their tinted backgrounds, and upon inquiry find 
it is mostly due to negligence as to "pats." Too much care 
cannot be paid to this seemingly insignificant detail. The 
patjshould be made of fluffy cotton (I use the best medicated 
cotton) not "wadded" but placed in a nice layer with the edges 
