The decorative possibilities of simple incised lines
and plain slip additions have been hinted at already. The slip may be coloured red or brown with iron and manganese oxides or applied white to a coloured body. Sharply incised lines may be filled in with colour stiffened by the addition of a little hard clear glaze or China clay. Patterns may be dug out or stamped in and filled up with different coloured clays and the whole glazed with a coloured transparent glaze. Scraffito work is effective and not difficult. The green pot, tile, or dish is sprayed evenly with a different coloured slip, usually red on white. The piece should not be quite dry and the coefficient of expansion between the two clays as near alike as possible. The decoration is then sketched in and the background or the ornament itself gently scratched away to show the ground beneath. It is then fired, glazed, and fired again. All these processes have their uses and abuses, but they do not lend themselves readily to elaboration or realism.
Fig. 56
CHAPTER XIV
Figurines
“But if you carve in the marble what will break with a touch, or mould in the metal what a stain of rust or verdigris will spoil, it is your fault not mine.”
—Ruskin.