Anonymous

“ In china painting, as in every other art, success can be reached only by diligent, intelligent practice. No amount of mere verbal directions can ever enable you to attain the desirable medium in your work, between too thick and too thin, too dry and too wet. ”

“ It will scarcely be believed that leather thus prepared is a material sufficiently tractable to assume all the sharpness and nicety of touch which distinguish these works; but in the flowers, fruits, and animals—figures which are executed in profusion, there is discoverable, with the liberal and mellow breadth to which we have alluded, a sharpness and fineness of outline all sufficient for the closest imitation of nature ”

“ To say nothing of books bearing directly on the subject, such as the works of Owen Jones, Whewell, Dusser, etc., quaint or peculiarly appropriate mottoes will be seized on with avidity, either suggesting a design or illustrating one already in hand.
But in designing you must bear in mind the fact that you must work always within certain limitations. Absolute imitation of nature is impossible in decorative art. It is one of the principles most to be insisted on, that decoration is not picture making. ”

“ An old Italian proverb may be freely translated: — "If time corrects painting, it does nothing for drawing. " But if you wish to begin painting, you need not necessarily wait till you are a proficient with your pencil. Good drawing may be learnt as well with the brush as in any other way; and in fact, the artist must learn to draw with his brush, that is, to produce the right effects of light and shade, true perspective, etc. Good lessons are, of course, of inestimable value, but many have done much for themselves by study and assiduous practice. ”

“ As in all painting, some knowledge of drawing is necessary, and those who have studied nature carefully, cannot fail to succeed. The object we have in view is to make our work resemble china as much as possible, at the same time to give the groupings all the fresh look of nature. This is obtained by careful modelling, and also by laying on the color in thin washes, allowing every wash to become perfectly dry before attempting finish. Many unhappy bits of work are produced by neglect of this rule, and beginners often fail at the outset by hurrying on, their only object being to obtain an effect ”

“ Darned net, drawn work, fine linen sketched with indelible ink or worked in outline, would make equally dainty tidies, while the fact that they can be easily laundried makes their name seem no longer a misnomer. ”

“ Should the material be too light to admit of stretching it firmly, stretch a piece of strong linen, and pin the work firmly on it. Both hands are employed when working in a frame, one above and the other below the work, and practise will enable you to work with either. Care should be taken to keep the frame in such a position that the worker will not be obliged to stoop.
Very much of the beauty of all varieties of embroidery depends on the harmonious arrangement of the colors, and this cannot be taught in any manual. To some, the color sense seems utterly, or in large part, wanting. ”

“ Painting, now-a-days, is used for decorating almost everything. It is so much more effective, for the time spent on it, than embroidery that, in this go-ahead age, it is not strange it should be popular. On silk and satin, decorative painting can be quickly executed by one who has a good eye for color, and command of the brush. The method is much the same as above described, only that some means often have to be taken to prevent the oil from spreading. ”

“ Very handsome hearth rugs may be knit either of rags cut and sewed as for rag carpets, and knit in garter stitch, or else of twine with bits of cloth, strands of thick Smyrna wool, or ravelings of tapestry Brussels carpet looped in. These rugs are much more easily managed if knit in strips or blocks and afterwards sewed together. They may be made oblong, oval, or round as suits one's taste. The colors may be arranged so as to form a sort of pattern. Thus, in one rug in my own possession, the centre is a small oblong piece of about twice as long as it is wide. ”

“ There can be as well defined unity in coloring as in designing an ornamental pattern. One scheme of color can run through an entire design. As a flower or leaf in the drawing is taken as a centre around which others cluster, so a color can be selected as the central point to which all the shades must relate. To follow out this idea, we will suppose curtains are to be made of a peacock blue fabric. Blue in this case would be the ruling color, and all the greens used in working on it must be bluish in hue ”

“ The stalks of fruit are usually made, like those for wax flowers, of wire covered with silk, except in fruits having a very large stem, like the cucumber, when a roll of green silk or cotton, stiffened by a wire through the centre, should be laid on the groove of the mould. It is well to allow the cotton or silk to project into the body of the fruit at least half an inch, so that when the casting is complete, the stalk will be firm in its place and will bear the weight of the fruit. ”

“ Modelling in clay may be recommended to the amateur, anxious to try his or her hand at art, on many accounts. The materials are cheap and easily procured. The work may be made not merely decorative but useful, and it teaches one much of drawing. Indeed, this fact is recognized now in many of the primary schools in teaching drawing. The children are first taught to make the forms, such as cubes, spheres, etc., and then made to draw them. And the remembrance of mud-pies suggests another advantage in clay modelling over the other minor arts—the taste is born in us. Every child makes mud-pies ”

“ In painting, endeavor to lay on your colors steadily and boldly, with as few strokes of the brush as possible. Keep your tints pure and distinct, each in the place you mean it to be. Do not, by going over and over them with the brush muddle and mix the tints, for some tints destroy each other, and the transparency and beauty of the painting will be lost. In softening or uniting the tints, it is best either to use an intermediate shade, or else, with a clean brush and no color, to melt them together. Much depends on the first painting. ”

“ Study of a good, conventional design with an endeavor to discover its "motive" or foundation line will aid one much in forming combinations of their own.
The same general directions will aid one in forming less conventional designs. Study beautiful forms in nature. If you cannot copy them directly from the object, draw them from good outlines, using tracing paper if necessary. It will not belong before you throw aside this aid, and trust to your own resources. And as your power over your pencil grows, your interest in your work will also grow. ”

“ Perforated patterns with the materials for stamping can now be bought for a mere trifle, and the work done from them will prove more satisfactory than when your design stares you constantly in the face from the pages of a book. ”

“ Paint the grass with short, quick strokes. A little practice on another piece of china, grounded like your plaque with yellow brown will soon give you the requisite touch. The birds are painted in ivory black directly on the color of the sky. When you have the plate fired, have a narrow gilt rim put around it.
While many who attempt china decoration, chiefly confine themselves to flower painting, the simplest and in many respects, most appropriate style of decoration, yet there are those who aim higher, and wish to excel in landscape or in figure painting. ”

“ The manual dexterity, and the artistic judgment, without which success is impossible, are to be secured by diligent painstaking practice, and by that alone. But if you have an average amount of taste, a steady hand, and a determination to merit success by perseverance, there is no reason why you should not, in a time which will seem surprisingly short after it has passed, produce work quite good enough to be used for home decoration, or to secure a purchaser if you desire to sell it. ”

“ People living near large cities can generally have their "firing" done at a wholesale china store or at a decorator's. The advertisements of many such firms are to be found in papers devoted to art work, and dealers in artists' materials can generally get the work done, or procure the address of some firm who will fire amateur's work. The charges for firing are, as a rule, moderate, from five to ten cents for each small piece, such as a cup, a saucer, a tile, etc., and increasing in accordance to the size and shape of the article to be baked. ”

“ The colors change much more in the process of firing in under-glaze than in china painting. After having once been fired, additional touches may be given with the over-glaze colors, and in the hands of an expert very fine results are produced. Under-glaze is a favorite mode of decoration with those who are good colorists, as well as skillful handlers of the brush.
Some times biscuit is decorated with oil paints, being subjected to a slight firing which fixes the colors, but this decoration is, of course not so durable as when done with mineral colors. ”

“ Have ready on your palette, some sky blue, mixed as for grounding, and also some gray, formed by mixing apple green and carmine, using rather more carmine than green. Paint the sky over as if for grounding, using the sky blue for the upper part, and the gray for the lower, taking care to put on the blue more thinly as you approach the gray. If you wish clouds, wipe them out very quickly with a cloth, and then dabble the whole exactly as you would a ground tint. ”

“ Do not, until you have practised for a long time, attempt to draw from memory. Have the form which is the foundation of your design before you, remembering always that no matter how much you may conventionalize that form, the characteristics of the original must be preserved. ”

“ A remarkably pretty and simple border can be worked on fine burlaps in red. Sprays of the sassafras form the design, which is outlined in a dark red, with a background darned in a brighter shade of the same color. This scarf was finished with a knotted fringe, while above the border was an inch wide strip of drawn work. The same idea would be very pretty for a heading for curtains. The modern darned work is principally used as a background in straight, horizontal stitches, but these may be varied according to the inclination or taste of the worker. ”

“ Colors that are too bright can thus be cooled down, and objects made to appear more distant; smoke mist, and the haziness of far-off hills, can be thus produced. The color should be laid on very thinly, with a hog's bristle brush, and should not be laid over shadows.
When painting, often retire from your work and look at it from a distance, so as to judge of the effect. When copying from nature, as in painting flowers, look at them sometimes with your eyes half closed, or through a tube formed of rolled up paper. ”

“ Don't be discouraged at repeated failures. Never try to remedy a defect. The only way is to take the whole coat of paint off. Never work where it is dusty. If hairs fall from the brush take them carefully off with the point of a needle, as otherwise they will leave a mark when the firing is done.
When you are satisfied with the ground, put your tile away where it can dry without danger of becoming dusty. When thoroughly dry, clear the design of paint with a knife, or if your hand is steady, with a brush dipped in turpentine, and wiped almost dry. Keep the brush clear of color with turpentine. ”

“ Although a diversity of colors are sometimes employed, as a rule, one or two shades of a single color will give the most satisfactory results. It is very important in outline work to keep the stitches as far as possible of the same length, and to follow the outline exactly. An irregular, waving line has as disagreeable an effect as a weak line in drawing. Judgment also must be exercised in turning corners, working foliage, etc. The distance must be measured with the eye, and the stitches so adjusted as to avoid a sudden shortening or lengthening of the stitch. ”

“ Very serviceable and pretty scrap baskets can be made from peach baskets, by painting them black or any desirable color, and then ornamenting them with a band of embroidery, or a drapery of crochet or macramé fringe. Several coats of paint should be put on to hide the roughness of the basket, which should be lined with a suitable color. A pocket on one side for scraps which suggest doubts as to the propriety of throwing them away will prove a useful addition. ”

“ Beginners generally err here, if they have not sufficiently observed and studied nature. The vases or pots may be in terra-cotta, earthenware salt jars, or the little brown jars usually used for culinary purposes—these last are most inexpensive, and answer admirably. When the group is quite hard and dry, hold the flowers to the lighted candle separately, and quickly apply them to the vase, taking care that there is no moisture between them, for this will surely prevent their adhering. Leave the work to stand until it has become firmly fixed to the vase, and then begin the painting. ”

“ Where darned work is used for filling in outlines, the design should be so composed that the unworked spaces may present ornamental shapes, for they will attract the eye, and hold as important a part in the finished work as flower and leaf spaces on a darned background. In darning within the outlines, it is not necessary to darn the whole composition, though it may thus be treated and stand boldly out on a plain background with artistic effect ”

“ Add a little water to a color when it is being softened down, but with very great care. Two shades on a leaf or petal can be softened into each other by brushing the leaf with the hard brush the way in which the pile runs most easily, and then the contrary way. Sketch in the stamens, veins and fine lines of the design with a crow-quill pen after the painting is dry. When all the work is done, take a smooth, soft hat brush and brush it gently over the work so as to raise any part of the pile that may have been flattened. ”

“ A very important part of china painting is learning to lay on a flat tint or ground. Like many another thing it is quite easy when you have done it, but oftentimes it takes many attempts before a beginner gets a smooth tint. One might travesty Shakespeare in giving directions for this process to an amateur and say "if you have patience, prepare to use it now," and speaking from experience, I would add, "if you have no patience, don't try to lay a ground." ”

“ Another beautiful piece of crazy work was a band for a portière in which two or three colors were so arranged as to shade from dark at the ends to light in the centre. The ornamentation, in this case, was extremely rich, and gold thread, etc., was lavishly used.
This patchwork can also be made from nice woolen pieces worked with crewels, and the latest attempt at it which I have seen was a bedside rug, made of odd bits of Brussels carpet, arranged smoothly on a strong foundation of hemp carpeting or ticking, and the seams covered with worsted braid worked with crewels and silks. ”

“ Great attention must be paid to "keeping the balance true." That is, the ornamentation must be evenly distributed, not massed in any one spot. The same thing is true of the colors, which should be so managed as to avoid any patchy effects. All sorts of fancy stitches can be used for working the seams. Brier, coral, buttonhole, and point russe stitches are the most common, but a clever worker can make up many ornamental ones to suit her own fancy. For instance, a wide row of herringbone of black silk can have a fan of three or five stitches of a bright color worked at each point. ”