effeminate.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--A PLAQUE.]

In working up the leaves, don't attempt to put many veins in them.
Hardly do more than indicate the centre vein. Nothing looks worse than
to see the various forms covered with a network of minute markings. You
will find, if you try and put in the veins in your modelled tile, your
leaves will not look as though they were veined, but as though some
stiff-legged insect had crawled over the damp clay, and had left its
trail behind it. In putting in the stamens in flowers, you will have to
have recourse to an expedient, for it is evident that you cannot copy
every individual stamen in clay any more than you can make your clay
petals as thin and delicate as nature. You must translate the effect of
nature into clay, and in the case of the stamens you will find it a good
plan to build up the centre of the flower, and then press into it a
pointed stick, repeating the operation until the whole of the centre is
perforated, as it were, like a grater.

In order to make a contrast between the design and the background, you
can dot or line over the slab upon which the design is lying, so as to
make the surface rough in texture. When the clay is quite dry, which
will take some week or more to effect, you can put any further work
into the design with the steel tool, which must be used to scrape the
clay; for if you exert any pressure upon the dry clay it very soon
chips, and it is almost impossible to repair such damage, and for this
reason: that if you stick on a piece of wet clay to the dry clay, the
moisture of the wet clay is soon absorbed by the dry, and the piece
stuck on immediately falls off. The only chance is to keep damping the
part damaged until the clay all round gets quite moist again, and you