Enrichment for Large Areas
It is true that the old time craftsman with consummate skill fully enriched large surfaces, but two factors interfere with this mode of treatment today. The first factor is the decidedly practical nature of the problem. The service to which the modern industrial project is put interferes with the use of full surface enrichment. The second is the lack of skill on the part of the modern amateur designer. It is a sound policy to avoid the ornateness that frequently accompanies a large and unskillfully planned area. In place of this, we should limit the enrichment of large masses to a few salient areas which are well related to the structural lines.
Rule 11b. Conservative application should mark the use of surface enrichment of large masses. Its use should: (1) lighten or soften necessarily heavy construction; (2) support or apparently strengthen good structure; (3) add interest to large unbroken and uninteresting surfaces.
Essentials of Good Surface Enrichment
These salient areas should determine the surface enrichment appropriate to the structure, so that the enrichment: (1) will lighten or soften necessarily heavy construction as in [Figure 403]; (2) support or apparently strengthen good structure, [Figure 413]; (3) add interest to large unbroken or otherwise uninteresting surfaces as illustrated in [Figure 405]. To aid in producing the desired results, we have the technical processes mentioned in [Chapter XIII] as follows: (1) Piercing; (2) Etching; (3) Chasing; (4) Enameling; (5) Inlaying; (6) Stone setting; (7) Building; (8) Carving; (9) Planishing; (10) Frosting; (11) Oxidizing. On the plates for this chapter, the figure generally following the cut number refers to the process, as: [Figure 446], 3.
Figure 406a.—Mainly Objects Designed to be Seen from Above
Surface Design Evolution
Rule 11a. The preliminary steps toward surface enrichment should be thought out before they are drawn.
A designer will be materially helped if he devotes a few moments of thought to his design problem before he applies the pencil to the paper. In the end the time given to thinking out his problem will gain for him both increased excellence of design and rapidity of execution, provided his thinking is systematic. A sequential order of points to be observed is given below. The object of systematic thought is to form a mental picture of the enrichment to be in full accord with the materials and construction and to be sympathetically related to the structural axes and to the contours. The unenriched mass has been designed and we are now ready for the consideration of surface enrichment in the following order.