Don't be frightened at the word, dears. China-painting is high art
sometimes, and intricate and difficult work often, but it is quite
possible to produce pretty effects without knowing a great deal about
either china or painting. Neither are the materials of necessity
expensive. All that you need, to begin with, are a few half tubes of
china or mineral paints, which cost about as much as oil colors,
four or five camel's-hair brushes, a palette-knife, a small phial of
oil-of-lavender, and another of oil-of-turpentine, a plain glazed
china cup or plate or tile to work on, and either a china palette or
another plate on which to rub the paints. For colors, black, capuchine
red, rose-pink, yellow, blue, green and brown are an ample assortment
for a novice and for purposes of practice. We would advise only two
tubes, one of black and one of rose pink, which are colors that do
not betray your confidence when it comes to baking. For the chief
difficulty in china-painting is that to be permanent the work must
be "fired,"--that is, fused by a great heat in a furnace,--and it
requires a great deal of experience to learn what the different
tints are likely to do under this test. Some colors--yellow, for
instance--eat up, so to speak, the colors laid over them. Others
change tint. Pinks and some of the greens grow more intense; white
cannot be trusted, and mixing one paint with another, as in oils, can
only be done safely by experts. It is well, therefore, to begin with
two simple colors, and you will be surprised to see how much may be
done with them. (See "Hollenberry Cup," in ST. NICHOLAS for May, 1877,
page 458.) A cup of transparent white china, the handle painted black,
a Japanese-looking bough with black foliage and pink blossoms thrown
over it, and a little motto, has a really charming effect. But be sure
to put on the pink very pale, and the black, not in a hard, solid
streak, but delicately, to suggest shading from dark to light, or the
result of the baking will be disappointment.
[Illustration: WOODEN BOX, ORNAMENTED WITH FERNS (AUTUMN-LEAF WORK).]
The method of preparing the colors is to squeeze a very little paint
from each tube upon your palette or plate; take a tiny drop of
oil-of-lavender on the palette-knife, and with it rub the paint
smooth. It should be thinned just enough to work smoothly; every drop
of oil added after that is a disadvantage. Use a separate brush for
each color, and wash them thoroughly with soap and hot water before
putting them aside. The painting should be set away where no dust can
come to it, and it will dry rapidly in forty-eight hours or less.
Elaborate work often requires repainting after baking, the process
being repeated several times; but for simpler designs one baking is
usually enough. There are bakeries in Boston, New York, and others
of our large cities, to which china can be sent, the price of baking
being about ten cents for each article.
[Illustration: TABLE-TOP (NOVELTIES IN FERN-WORK)]