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.