CHAPTER XXVI.
CHINA PAINTING.
CERTAINLY you can paint on china; have confidence, and do not hesitate because you may never have studied art, but select the china you wish to decorate and we will go to work. First, take what is needed for present use from the following
List of Materials.
PALETTE.
A common square, white china tile is the best palette for mineral colors; but in case you have no tile, an old white plate will answer the purpose.
BRUSHES.
These are of camel’s-hair, Figs. 173 and 174, are broad and flat, and are used in placing the color on the china when the surface is to be tinted. Fig. 175 is for blending the color after it is on the china; it is called a blender, and is useful where borders and surfaces are to be tinted. Figs. 176 and 178 are for general use. Fig. 177, with its long, slender point, is for gilding, another similar brush is needed for India-ink. Mark the two brushes in some way to distinguish them one from the other, and never use either for any paint except that for which it is intended. Fig. 179 is a stipple for blending the colors when painting a face, a fish, the sky of a landscape, or wherever delicate, fine blending is needed.
To clean the brushes after using: dip them in turpentine and wipe off the paint on a cotton cloth, repeating the operation until the brushes are perfectly clean; then dip them in fat oil, and bring them out smooth to a fine point. Do not allow the brushes to become bent over, if the box is not long enough for them to lie out straight, remove the quills from the wooden handles and they can easily be replaced when needed. Should the brushes seem a little stiff at the next painting, immerse them in turpentine; this will make them soft and pliable.
(Reduced sizes.)
To save the expensive gold paint, the gilder should be kept exclusively for gilding, and need not be cleaned, as it will not be injured if the hairs are carefully straightened out and the brush put away with the gold.
KNIVES.
Fig. 180 is a horn palette-knife for mixing Lacroix white, the yellows, and all such colors as are injured by contact with metal. It is the only knife used with the mat paints for Royal Worcester decoration. Fig. 181 is a steel palette-knife for general use. Fig. 182 is a steel scraper for removing paint from the china when necessary. Always clean the knives after mixing one color, before using them for another.
PAD.
This is made of a ball of cotton tied in a piece of soft lining-silk, fine linen, or cotton-cloth (Fig. 183) and is used for tinting.
THE PAINTS
are Lacroix’s colors; they come in tubes and should be squeezed out on the palette and used as in oil painting, with a little turpentine and fat oil when desired. To moisten the colors while painting dip your brush, carefully, without shaking or moving it around, into the turpentine or oil, and then in the color. Allow the paint to lie on the palette as it comes from the tube, except when two colors are mixed, or when using the stipple for blending one tint with another, or when tinting, then the paint must be mixed and rubbed down with oil and turpentine. Keep the colors in a cool place, and when returning them to the box, after you have finished painting, do not lay them back on the same side. Always remember to turn them over so that the color will not separate from the oil. If you are careful and follow these hints, your colors will keep in a good condition. We would advise you to purchase the paints as they are needed, thereby avoiding all unnecessary expenditure.
OILS.
Fat oil is for general use in painting. Clove oil is used in its place when two or more tints are to be blended together, as in painting a face, etc. Capavia oil is always mixed with the colors for grounding.
TURPENTINE
is in constant demand in china painting. It is used with all the different oils, paints, bronzes, and gilt, and should be poured in a small cup or any little vessel, and kept convenient while painting.
TAR PASTE
comes in bottles, and is used to take the color off of tinted backgrounds, in order to leave a clean surface of the china in which to paint the design in different colors. The paste should be rubbed down smooth on the tile with the palette-knife; if it is too hard, a little tar oil may be added. A small brush is best to use for the paste in covering the design you wish to wash out; but be very careful to keep within the outlines, for this mixture will take off the color wherever it touches. When the tint is light the paste may be wiped off in a few moments; but when it is dark, the paste must be allowed to remain on for perhaps hours before the paint will be sufficiently softened to remove.
Use small balls of raw cotton-batting in wiping off the paste, and take a fresh piece for every stroke. If any of the tar paste is left on the tile after using, scrape it off with your palette-knife, and return it to the bottle.
MAT GOLD
is for gilding, and can be either burnished or highly polished. It comes on a little square of glass inclosed in a box. This gold can also be used as solid ornamentation or for delicate tracery, and is sometimes used over colors, greens excepted, but is then never so bright as when on the plain white china.
The gold is prepared for painting on a tile kept expressly for the purpose, and which must not be used for any other paint. Place some of the gold on the palette with your palette-knife, and mix a little turpentine with it by dipping your palette-knife in the turpentine and rubbing down the gold with the turpentine on the knife. If more is needed, again dip your knife in the liquid, and do so as often as it is necessary; but you must use the utmost care not to have the gold too thin; gild with it as stiff as it can be smoothly applied.
Should any gold remain on the palette after the gilding is finished, mix in a little turpentine and scrape it all up with your palette-knife, then replace the gold on the square of glass.
Silver is used the same as gold.
The bronzes are for handles and conventional flowers or figures; they are rich and pleasing in effect.
PURE GOLD
cannot be employed for gilding plain white china. It also comes on a little square of glass and is used for gilding over colors. It can be applied over any mineral paint or relief, and may be polished or burnished as desired.
This gold is mixed with turpentine, for use in the same manner as mat gold.
RELIEF.
The best is mat relief, which comes in a powder, and is used for both tube and mat colors. It is prepared by mixing with a very little fat oil and turpentine, and should be applied stiff enough to make a raised line. It is useful where a small raised surface is desired, as on the edge of a leaf or the petals of flowers. A fish-net is much more effective if the gilt be put on over the relief. Should the relief dry and become too stiff while using, soften it from time to time with a little turpentine, always using the horn knife for mixing, as the steel knife should never be used with the relief, and the relief must always be fired before the gilt is applied.
Enamel white can be mixed with delicate tints, turpentine, and a very little fat oil for raised flowers; or the white alone may be used for pearls, imitation of lace, or embroidery, but its use is limited and it will not stand two firings, so should always be the last paint applied.
MAT COLORS
are for Royal Worcester decorations. They come in powders, and when mixed with a little oil and turpentine are used in the same way as the Lacroix tube paints.
BOX FOR MATERIALS.
Select a light wooden box, or one of strong pasteboard; have the box of a convenient size to contain all your painting materials.
PIECES OF SOFT, OLD MUSLIN,
torn in different sizes, and plenty of them, are very essential for cleaning brushes and rubbing paint off the tile or china; the demand for clean pieces will be constant while painting.
CHINA.
Have this of the very finest French ware, without spots or other imperfections of the surface, and never attempt to decorate china after it has been used, for it seldom proves satisfactory.
A Monochrome Painting.
For this we will need a tile, a pad, a broad flat brush (Fig. 173), some turpentine, capavia, two tubes of paint—one copper-water green, the other brown green—a palette-knife, and some pieces of cotton cloth. Now be sure your china is perfectly clean and dry, then mix your copper-water green for
Tinting.
Place enough color on your palette to cover the entire surface to be tinted; dip your palette-knife in the capavia oil and tap it off the knife on the tile; in the same way place turpentine on the tile with the oil, and use your palette-knife to thoroughly mix the paint, oil, and turpentine. If the mixture seems too stiff add a little more oil and turpentine, but be careful not to have the paint too thin so that it will run; test its consistency with a brush on a clean place on the tile.
As a rule, the proportions for tinting should be five drops of paint to three of capavia, mixed with a little turpentine.
The paint being prepared, take the flat brush and begin to paint; rapidly cover the entire surface with color. Then go over the tinting with a pad, touching lightly and gently, not letting the pad rest a moment on the paint, nor touching it twice in the same place in succession. Continue going over and over it until the grounding is even and of a uniform tint. Then set the china away to dry, in a safe place, where it will be free from dust. Always make a fresh pad every time you tint, and a separate one for each color used, as a pad cannot do service more than once.
All tinted grounds and borders are made in this way, the capavia oil and turpentine being mixed with any of the grounding colors you may wish to use. Tinting is very easily and quickly done; but should anything happen to spot or mar the evenness of the grounding, the paint must all be washed off with turpentine, and the china tinted over again.
When your green-tinted china is perfectly dry, gather some maple leaves and with the brown-green paint try a
New Method of Decorating China.
The leaves must be free from dust and moisture and perfectly fresh. Place a small quantity of paint on the palette, do not mix the paint with oil or turpentine, but rub it down well on the tile as it comes from the tube; make the paint perfectly smooth, now press a small clean pad down lightly, lifting and again pressing until the paint is smoothly distributed on the pad; next select a leaf and place it face or right side downward on a piece of folded newspaper, then press the pad down on the under side of the leaf, which is now lying upward, repeating the operation until the leaf is sufficiently covered with paint. This done, carefully place the leaf painted side downward on the china, over it lay a piece of common wrapping-paper, and rub your finger gently all over the covered leaf. Then remove the outside paper and very carefully take up the leaf, when an exact impress of the natural leaf will be printed on the china. Repeat the operation with another leaf either larger or smaller, and still another, using as many as you wish; connect the leaves to a central branch by making the stems and branch in the same color with a small paint-brush. To do this paint a long line for the branch and other smaller ones for the stems of the leaves. Set the china away to dry, and it will be ready for firing. Very pretty effects may be secured by using two shades of one color for the tinting and designs. First tint the china, and when it is perfectly dry, ornament it with the same paint in the manner described, making the ground of a lighter tint than the decorations. The colors of fall leaves can be used on white china, or you may make the combinations and designs of whatever is most pleasing.
It is well to have some idea of what your decoration is to be like before commencing with the leaves. If you desire a spray, try to place the leaves as they are on the natural spray, or as represented in some picture taken for a guide. The prints also look well used in a conventional style. As any kind of leaves or grasses that will print can be employed, your decorations will always be original and true to nature.
Flowers are more difficult to print, yet when the impressions are successful they are very beautiful.
You will find this new idea an interesting method of ornamenting china, while the decorations may be made in much less time than is usually required. The style is suitable for dinner-sets, vases, tiles, plaques, and lamps, and it requires no knowledge of drawing or painting to decorate china in this simple yet effective manner.
Tracing.
Lay a piece of tracing-paper over the design to be copied and trace the outlines very carefully with a hard lead-pencil. Then have your china perfectly clean and dry, and give it a wash all over with a clean cotton cloth wet with clear turpentine. Place a piece of red transfer-paper on the china, and having determined exactly where you wish the design, lay the tracing-paper over the transfer-paper on the space for decoration. Use bits of gummed paper on the corners of the transfer- and tracing-paper to hold them in place, and carefully go over the lines with a lead-pencil, remove the papers, and the design will be clearly outlined on the ware. Now rub a little India-ink on a common individual butter-plate of white china, and using a fine brush, very carefully paint over the red marks with the India-ink, making your lines as distinct and delicate as possible. When this is finished, again wash the china with turpentine to remove any of the red coloring which may be apparent on its surface. Thus prepared the design can be painted, or the china may first be tinted and allowed to dry, when the outlines will be plainly visible through the tinting, and the color can be removed from the design with tar paste. Use the scraper to take the grounding off of minute spaces. For those skilled in drawing it will not be necessary to trace the design, as it can readily be sketched on the china with a lead-pencil after the ware has first received a coat of turpentine, and when tinted the decoration can be drawn on after the grounding has thoroughly dried, and the color may be removed as before.
Mottled Grounds.
Prepare the paint as for tinting, only make it more moist, and dab it lightly over the china by means of a piece of cotton cloth on the end of your finger; this will give the china a mottled appearance which in some cases is preferred to the plain grounding.
Snow Landscape.
We will take for example Fig. 184.
After tracing the design, paint a streak across the sky, just back and a little above the trees, with carnation No. 1 mixed with clove oil and turpentine, then another narrow streak above it of a lighter shade, and another still lighter of the same color, allowing each tint to meet. Next mix light sky-blue with clove oil and turpentine, and paint as deep a tint as it will make across the sky at the top of the plate, graduating it down to the red; use the stipple immediately while the paint is wet to blend the colors and tints; this finished, make the reflections on the ice, beginning with carnation No. 1 for the ice nearest the castle, and ending near the bottom of the plate with the deepest shade of light sky-blue, using the colors mixed for the sky. Paint the foliage in the background with neutral gray and sky-blue mixed with turpentine and fat oil for the darker tones, and turquoise-blue with neutral gray, turpentine and fat oil for the lighter parts, also for shading the darker portions of the snow. Then take brown No. 4 as it comes from the tube, with a little turpentine when necessary, for the shading of the trees in the foreground, the outlining of the castle, and the tufts of grass and edges of the ice in places where the copy requires it.
Leave the white china for the high lights and the white snow on the roof of the castle, on the trees, and here and there on the ground.
Paint the castle with neutral gray and yellow ochre mixed with turpentine and fat oil, and its windows with brown No. 4, using the color as it comes from the tube. Now allow the plate to dry and then have it fired, after which mix carnation No. 1 with clove oil and turpentine, and touch up the sky and reflections on the ice, using the stipple if necessary; then mix light sky-blue with clove oil and turpentine and paint the sky where that color is required and the light shadows on the snow; then take yellow ochre for portions of the trees, places in the foreground, and touching up the castle; mix this color with fat-oil and turpentine.
Again strengthen the trees and other places, where the painting requires it, with brown No. 4, unmixed, except with a little turpentine when necessary; for the last touches mix relief-white with fat oil and clean turpentine, using the horn-palette knife always when mixing the white; this is to be laid on, in little raised places, where the snow is whitest on the ground and where the snow has lodged in the trees.
Now inclose the snow scene with a gilt band, using the stipple to make an uneven edge of gilt on the surrounding white rim; the gold next to the picture must be perfectly smooth and even; put this on with your fine long-haired brush; then make a similar band on the edge of the plate and it will be finished and ready for its last firing.
Almost any snow landscape with a sunset sky may be painted in this way.
Often you can find Christmas cards which will furnish very good copies.
How to Paint a Head on China.
Select a pretty copy from some photograph, as in Fig. 185; very carefully trace the head on a plate and go over the lines with Indian ink; next give the plate another wash with turpentine, to remove all remains of the color from the transfer-paper; then mix thoroughly two parts of carnation No. 2 with one part of ivory-yellow, adding a little turpentine and clove oil; give the face and neck a wash with this color and touch up the cheeks with carnation No. 1 mixed with clove oil and turpentine; now lay on the shadows with neutral gray, five parts, mixed with deep chrome-green, one part, using clove oil and turpentine in mixing the colors; last, the deepest shadows with brown No. 4, two parts, to one of ivory-black, mixed together with clove oil and turpentine, and immediately before any of the paint dries use the stipple to blend the colors, making the face round out and have the blending soft and true to nature; set your copy before you and try to have the shadows on the face you paint correspond exactly with those in the copy.
Now leave the face and neck, and place some brown No. 4 on the tile; do not mix it with anything; use it as it comes from the tube, dipping your brush in turpentine when it becomes necessary to thin the paint a little; with this paint the shading of the hair and follow with your brush, as nearly as possible, the sway of the masses. That finished, paint the eyes, eyebrows, and nostrils with brown No. 4 and ivory-black mixed together as they come from the tubes, using when necessary a little turpentine; then mix a little carnation No. 1 with fat oil for the lips. Next turn your attention to the drapery; shade the white material with gray No. 1, unmixed, and gray No. 2 for the deeper shadows, mixed with fat oil and turpentine.
For the handkerchief on the head mix emerald-green with fat-oil and turpentine; put it on in a light tint, so that the handkerchief can be shaded, when dry, with the same color.
When the plate is dry, it is ready to be fired. After it has been fired touch up the shading on the face and neck with two parts of carnation No. 2 mixed with one of brown No. 4, using clove oil and turpentine while mixing; and for the deepest shadows mix two parts of brown and one of ivory-black together with clove oil and turpentine. This must be put on carefully, so that the shadows will not be too dark. Use the stipple to blend the shadows; then give the hair a wash of yellow ochre all over, and touch up the handkerchief on the head with emerald green, the same you used before.
For the background of the head mix light coffee, turpentine, and capavia oil; make it an even tint with the blender (Fig. 175); the brush must be clean and dry, and used in the same manner as the pad in tinting, then, for the outer border, mix celestial-blue with capavia and turpentine, and with your large flat brush paint the border and blend it to an even tint with your pad. When this is finished wipe off the paint around the edge as evenly as possible, so that the bare china may be left to receive a band of gold. Roll up a piece of white cotton cloth into a small point and with this remove the paint around the inner edge of the blue border, making an even narrow white band; this is also to be gilded.
On a clean tile mix the mat gold with turpentine, and using the slender, fine, long-haired brush, carefully cover the white bands of china with gold; when this is finished the plate is ready for the second and last firing. If a fairer complexion be desired, make the flesh-tints of the same colors, only lighter in tint; try the paint on the edge of the tile until the tint is correct. Always try your colors this way when painting any design. For blue eyes use sky-blue shaded with black; the high light of the eye may be left the white of the china. If you wish the hair very light, take ivory-yellow and shade with sepia and black.
Once more we say, be very careful in tracing not to get the head or features out of drawing, as so much depends upon the correct outlines. Before sending china to be fired, paint in small figures the date on which it was decorated and add your name or initials.
How to Paint a Carp, Sea-weed, and Fish-net on China.
Having traced in your design very carefully, mix one part of neutral gray with two parts of sky-blue, some clove oil, and turpentine; with this paint the upper edge of the back of the fish dark, graduating to white along near the centre of the fish; stipple this so that it will look even, soft, and rounding, keeping it dark on the edge and tinting down to the white china; paint the tail and dorsal fins a flat tint of gray No. 2 mixed with fat oil and turpentine; then mix carnation No. 2 with fat oil and turpentine for a flat tint on gills, mouth, and ventral fin; shade the mouth with the same color and paint the anal and pectoral fins a flat tint of carnation No. 2 mixed with sepia; when dry shade with the same color, and also shade the gills and fins painted carnation with carnation, and the dorsal fins and tail shade with ivory-black mixed with fat oil and turpentine; try the paint with your brush until you get rather a gray tint instead of black, and use this for the shading; now paint the rows of spots along the back of the fish ivory-black, making the dots smaller as they approach the tail; and with your eraser take the paint off of the eye, leaving a clean white spot of china; paint a fine circle around this in ivory-black; then paint a portion of the eye black, leaving the white china for the high lights; in painting the scales and lower part of the fish use gray No. 1 as it comes from the tube, mark an outline of gray along the lower edge of the fish and stipple it off in the white, remembering this gray must occupy only a narrow line along the lower edge of the fish.
Commence to mark the scales in gray No. 1 by making a line of them with a fine-pointed brush downward across the body of the fish (Fig. 186) and this will be a guide to build out from (Fig. 187); after the painting has thoroughly dried begin again by marking, on the head and around the eye, the tiny scales in gray No. 2, with a little fat oil and turpentine, and paint a line along the upper edge of the head and back with brown No. 4, and another lighter line of the same color along the back just below and adjoining the first one; paint the eye and markings on the head brown and strengthen the tail and dorsal fins with gray No. 2; touch up around the gills with sky blue, also with yellow ochre where the copy requires it. Then turn your attention to the sea-weeds; mark the thread-like branches of these in different colors, using carnation, brown No. 4, gray No. 2, and brown-green; paint each weed in one color, place the sea-weeds on one side or corner of the plate, making them branch out this way and that, as in nature. Now clean off your palette and mix some mat relief for the fish-net, which is to be placed over and across a portion of the plate; with a lead-pencil mark the netting on the plate, but do not touch the fish; then with a very fine brush follow the markings with the relief, when it is necessary to paint across the fish, your eye and the copy must be your guides, as it would take the paint off the fish to attempt any marking on it. The relief on the fish cannot be altered, so be careful to have it correct the first time. Should the line of relief be too broad in other places, remove it with your scraper and make another trial. When the plate is perfectly dry it must be fired, after which put in a background of warm gray mixed with capavia and turpentine; bring this to an even tint with the blender, and if any paint blends over on the fish wipe it off while the color is damp; also remove the paint from the netting and set the china away to allow the color to thoroughly dry; next paint broad sweeps across the plate, but not over the fish, with gray No. 2 mixed with fat oil and turpentine, to represent the different tints of the water, and again remove the paint from the net; now touch up the sea-weed and the fish where they need strengthening, then give the fish a very light wash of gray No. 1.
Here and there along the upper edges of the water colored gray No. 2 make a very fine line with enamel or relief-white mixed with a little fat oil and turpentine; gild the fish-net, using either pure gold or mat gold, cover the relief carefully with the gold, and put it on thick but in fine lines; this accomplished, finish by gilding the edges of the plate with mat gold, and when dry send it to be fired. To avoid mistakes when sending china to be fired, state whether you wish the gold burnished, dull, or polished.
Foliage on China Made With a Sponge.
Prepare the paint with fat oil and turpentine, rub it down smooth, then with a small sponge apply the colors, using different shades as the first dry, and touching up afterward with a brush; in this way you can also paint backgrounds which cannot be made with the brush.
Mixing Colors.
The best way to paint with safety when you are in doubt what colors will mix, is to test them yourself. For this purpose take a French china plate and make experiments with different colors on the plate; at the same time write down a memorandum of the paints used and of those mixed, have the plate fired; then paste your memorandum on the back. Use this for reference, and with experience will come the full knowledge of the use of all the paints.
Royal Worcester Ware
is very delicate and dainty and something quite novel for amateurs in the way of china decorations.
Very beautiful pieces of this ware may be seen now in all the leading china establishments in New York City, and so choice is it that even some of the largest jewelry stores have rare Royal Worcester vases among their most valuable articles on exhibition.
We know of no book that teaches this art of decoration, and although we have seen some amateur work which only an expert could distinguish from the genuine article itself, we think our exposition of the method is the first of its kind printed in this country; and girls, if you would know the secret, so that you also may be able to paint and gild in this beautiful fashion, you have only to listen while the writer tells how to decorate a Royal Worcester vase as she did; then you will have a practicable and detailed method which we know to be good, having tried it.
Select a vase of the finest French china, and be sure that it is perfectly clean, dry, and free from dust. Then with a clean white cotton cloth give the vase a wash all over with clear turpentine, and having chosen your design, make a tracing of it on the vase, and it will be ready for grounding. Mix enough mat lemon-yellow to cover the entire surface of the vase. First place a little of the powder on the tile, then dip your palette-knife in the capavia oil and tap it off on the tile; in the same way drop turpentine on the tile with the oil. Use a horn palette-knife and thoroughly mix the paint, oil, and turpentine; if the mixture seems too stiff, add a little more oil and turpentine, but be careful not to have the paint too thin, so that it will run; try the paint with a brush on a clean place on the tile to see if it is of the right consistency and shade; do not let the color be too intense; it should be of a delicate tint, and if it is too dark add a very little more oil. Take a broad, flat brush and begin to paint at the top of the vase, passing around with short strokes rapidly over its whole surface; go over the tinting with a pad, touching lightly and gently; then set the vase away to dry in a dry place free from dust. The Indian-ink outlines will be plainly visible through the paint, and when the grounding or tinting has thoroughly hardened, to remove the color from the design, mix a little of the tar paste upon a clean tile by working it with your palette-knife until it is smooth. Use a small brush and go over the design with this mixture, covering every part except the stems and fine grasses; be very careful not to go outside of the lines. When the design is all painted with the paste, begin at that first covered and wipe off the tar paste with small pieces of cotton batting rolled into little balls, using a fresh wad for each stroke; clean it all off carefully and the vase will present vacant white china spots where the flowers, leaves, and bird are soon to appear. For a guide we will take Fig. 188. Now mix a little mat pink with fat oil and turpentine in the same way you prepared the grounding yellow, only this time fat oil takes the place of capavia; use the horn palette-knife as before; the steel knife should never be used with the Royal Worcester colors, as the metal is apt to rub in with the paint, dulling and spoiling the colors. Paint all the flowers a flat tint of light pink. Always try the color first on the tile until you have the desired shade. By the time all the flowers have received their tint of color, those first painted will be dry enough for shading. Observe attentively the copy, and notice where the different flowers are shaded; then shade yours with the same color, following as nearly as possible the copy before you.
For painting the leaves, mix separately with turpentine and fat oil, mat light yellow-green, mat dark-green, and mat blue green. These colors can be used separately or any two mixed if desired. Shade the leaves with mat yellow-brown mixed with the different greens. Paint the body of the bird a flat tint of mat gold-yellow and the top of its head and back green; the edges of wing and tail and eye must be of mat black. When the bird is dry, shade its breast with broad sweeps of mat gold-yellow, according to the copy; then mix black with yellow-brown for the other shading on the bird’s breast, and mix black with blue for painting and shading the wings and tail.
While the paint is drying on the vase mix the mat relief for the raised edges of bird, flowers, and stems. Mix the relief with turpentine and fat oil, making it as stiff as it can be used. With a very fine brush outline the bird, its wings, and tail; also a few strokes on its breast, tail, and back; be sure the relief is stiff enough to make a fine raised line; then outline the flowers and the stems; the leaves are not raised on the edges. When this is finished the vase is ready for its first firing. Allow the ware to become perfectly dry before sending it to the firers.
As great care should be taken with the firing of royal Worcester china, send your vase to the most reliable firers you know of, and when it is fired and returned, all that remains to be done is to carefully gild the vase. Mix pure gold with turpentine, but do not have it too thin, as the gold should be applied as thick as possible. For fine gilding use a fine small brush with long hairs; this will make a distinct thread-like line; first cover all the relief with the gold, next outline the leaves, veining them if necessary; then with thick gold make your grasses according to the copy. When the gold becomes too stiff work in a little more turpentine. After you have finished this gilding, mix some mat gold with turpentine and gild the top rim of the vase; use the small stipple brush cut off square at the end (Fig. 179), and bring the border down unevenly along its lower edge, making it the same way on the inside of the vase; then with the fine long-haired gilder cover the upper edge of the vase thick with gold. This finished, gild the bottom of the vase in like manner and make the handle solid gilt; after it is all dry the vase is ready for its second and last firing, and when it returns again from the firers you will have a piece of beautiful Royal Worcester ware similar to that seen at Tiffany’s.
The mat colors used, remove all the gloss from the china, and when mat lemon-yellow forms the grounding, the china comes from the firing having the appearance of beautiful decorated ivory without any glaze.
This ware must be seen to be appreciated, and is suitable for vases and ornaments, but the Royal Worcester colors cannot be used on table china, for any grease coming in contact with the colors would spoil them.
Exquisite little vases of all shapes are decorated in this manner; the delicate gold tracery and outlining brings the designs out effectively. In this style of painting the decoration is more conventional, and does not require the same amount of working up and shading, but is as a rule, treated simply, flat tints with a little shading being all that is required. Almost any floral design can be used on royal Worcester, when outlined with relief and gold; there are, however, copies which come expressly for the purpose.