Pottery decoration under the glaze

by M. Louise McLaughlin

Colors may be daubed upon pottery, as they are, alas! upon canvas, by those whose training and whose feeling for art would hardly fit them to become good house painters; but the result will not be good art, nor will it ever be its own excuse for being. If other branches of decorative art require taste, knowledge, and practical skill, so much the more does this, when it offers scope for the highest capacity. To the artist of ability sufficient to make use of it, it furnishes a palette which, although not of the same range as that of oil colors, yet affords an almost unlimited scale of colors, each of which is enhanced to the fullest degree by the brilliant glaze, with which the work is finished. The painting executed with these beautiful colors, moreover, is practically unchangeable, and none of the ravages of time, short of the destruction of the piece of ware itself, can affect it. In decorations for buildings, or for ordinary use in portraiture, or the higher forms of art, it offers, what has long been desired among artists and art lovers, a method of making works of art indestructible and beyond the possibility of change.

The ware known among dealers under the name of “barbotine,” has some resemblance to that which we have been considering. It has a light body, which has been subjected to a very slight fire, and is covered with a soft glaze, which ensures great brilliancy of coloring. The ware, however, has no durability, and is a substance that would not stand the action of the elements, if used in external decoration.

CHAPTER IV.
METHOD OF PAINTING FAIENCE UNDER THE GLAZE
WITH THE USE OF BODY COLOR.

The method of decorating pottery here described is similar in its effects to what is known as the Haviland, or Limoges faience, and is given as the result of numerous experiments made by the writer.

The finished work presents the appearance of a painting in oil, to which a brilliant glaze has been applied. This glaze not only renders the colors unchangeable, but gives a beauty and effectiveness which could be acquired in no other way. There is nothing peculiar in regard to this glaze, however, the only requisite being that it should be suited to the body of the ware, and that the latter and its glaze must not require so great a degree of heat in firing that the colors shall be injured. This matter of the glaze has been almost uniformly misrepresented in accounts of the ware which have been published. It has been said that the peculiar effect of the work was due to the glaze, and that the secret of making it was not generally known. This is not at all true, as the results are due solely to the peculiar method of painting, and the glaze is simply the process by which it is finished, and bears the same relation to it as the varnish does to the painting in oil. The work will suffer, of course, if this part of it is not well performed; but the distinguishing feature of the method consists not in the glaze, but in the use of clay, which is mixed with coloring oxides, capable of bearing a high degree of heat in firing, and which gives them body, producing a thick impasto in the painting. The work partakes, therefore, both of the nature of painting and modeling, as the high lights may be laid in so thickly as to produce an actual relief.

It is somewhat difficult, indeed, almost impossible, to give a correct idea of the palettes to be used in this kind of painting. If colors could be procured, already prepared for use, as oil paints are, and these colors had the same appearance after firing as before, it would be comparatively an easy task. As it is, the colors must be mixed with clays in certain proportions, and, on account of the change produced by firing, the proportions necessary to produce the intensity of color desired, can only be determined from experience. The result, after the work is finished, differs from its appearance before firing to a greater extent than in any other kind of decoration upon pottery. As a rule, it may be said that the colors are intensified by firing. This is also true of other kinds of under-glaze painting, but not in so great a degree as in the case in question. The harmonies and contrasts of color can be kept only in the mind of the artist, and every part of the work must be done with a view to the result when finished, which, as has been said, will differ materially from its appearance during the progress of the painting. Experience only, can give an accurate idea of these changes. This, however, is not an insurmountable difficulty; care and patience added to the requisite artistic ability, will soon lead to satisfactory results.

Before describing the method of painting, it may be well to consider the kind of clay of which the body of the ware should be made, and the state in which the painting should be applied. As to the clay forming the body of the ware, it must be of such a nature as to adapt itself to a glaze sufficiently soft to preserve the colors. As the clay used in the painting must, of necessity, in most cases, be white, in order that the purity and beauty of the colors may not be affected by admixture with it, a body of the same, or very nearly resembling it, would, in some respects, be the best, one reason for this being that the applied clay would be more certain to adhere firmly to the body, both having the same qualities. The proper glaze for such a body would, however, require too great a degree of heat in the firing, and none but the strongest colors could bear it without injury.

In order, therefore, that the glaze may be perfectly adapted to the body of the ware, and yet require no greater degree of heat than the colors used in the painting will bear, it is best to use a body formed from materials which do not need to be fired at a very high temperature. This desired quality is found in some of the natural colored clays. A mixture partaking of the qualities of both yellow and red clay, without the unpleasant color of the former, and possessing greater strength than the latter, has been found to be the best.