1. This is the simplest form of enrichment, a process familiar to the earliest primitive potters and appropriate now for beginners. It consists of the process of lowering lines or planes into the clay body to the depth of from one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch. These lines or planes should be bold and broad. They may be made with a blunt pencil or a flat pointed stick. A square, rectangular, or round stick may be used as a stamp with which to form a pattern for incising. Illustrations of simple incising may be found in Figures [283], [284], [295], [319], [330]. The tiles shown are about six inches square.
Piercing
2. This process is less common and, as its name implies, is carried out by cutting through the clay. It may be done with a fine wire. Either the background or the design itself may be thus removed. The effect produced is that of lightening an object such as the top of a hanging flower holder, a window flower box, or a lantern shade.
Modeling
3. By adding clay to the main body, and by working this clay into low relief flower or geometric forms, one has the basic process of modeling. The slightly raised areas of clay form a pleasing play of light and shade that varies the otherwise plain surface of the ware. The process should be used with caution, for over-modeling, Figure [325], will obstruct the structural outlines and, because of its over prominence as decoration, will cease to be surface enrichment. In the technical language of the designer over-modeling is an enrichment which is not subordinated to the surface. In articles intended for service this high relief modeling is unsanitary and unsatisfactory.
[Figures 286] and [287] show incising with slight modeling, while [324], [328], and [329] are examples of more complex enrichment.
Plate 47