PAINTING ON CHINA

Taranaki Daily News, 7 April 1928, Page 20

PAINTING ON CHINA

(By Constance Aylen). Painting on china is easier than it looks. Moreover, it is a fascinating pastime. The chief point to remember is that tlie design should be simple — the simpler the better. Futurist designs and sprawling lines are out of place lu this kind of decoration. All shops which stock artists’ colours sell china paints. Turpentine acts as an eraser, so that you can experiment upon old white plate, practising with various combinations of colours, patterns and thicknesses of paint—a very important matter this last —until you consider you are sufficiently proficient to proceed further. Then provide yourself with aef wp vbgk vbgk vbgk self with a few plain white plates, cups and saucers, little butter dishes, etc., and commence work in earnest. HOW TO PROCEED. Choose your design first, say for a plate; any simple one will do. Work it out on paper so that it is just the right size and curved to fit the section of the plate it is to adorn. Trace it on thin tracery paper and fasten it to the plate with a spot of wax. Slip a small piece of carbon paper underneath, hold it firmly and trace with a very hard pencil, one section at a time. Now outline the pattern either in black or in a darker shade of the colour you are using for the design. For this purpose your paint should be mixed thin and applied with a fine camel's hair brush. Have the old plate handy to practise on and when you feel able to make even, steady lines, paint over the lines of the traced pattern. Let this dry thoroughly; then put in the colour or colours yon have arrangedorange and brown; blue and green; yellow and copper and so on. For this last proceeding, the paint must ba thick and compact, so that it will not spread. Work it well into the brush and then paint inside the outlines, as smoothly as possible all at once, so that you need not touch the design again, thus keeping the colour clear.

Having finished your design, protect the paint and china from dust, let it dry thoroughly, then wrap it in tissue paper and'take it to be fired. Be sure to clean your brushes with turpentine and press them into shape, ready for use next time.