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While thousands of ceramic workers over the country have been making trinket boxes with flowers on the cover, salt and pepper shakers, and stereotyped dancing girls, Mrs. Merwin has explored a new field where individuality is the keynote of success.

This grandmother had no formal art training until ten years ago, though she had been interested in sculpturing in a passive way all her life. She appreciated the works of others, but had never experimented with the art herself until sculpture classes for adults were opened in the South Pasadena schools. Mrs. Merwin enrolled, and with her husband to encourage her, she devoted many hours to studying and developing her hobby of sculpture.

A FEW YEARS ago, after her husband died, Mrs. Merwin decided to place her hobby on a paying basis. For further instruction, she enrolled in the classes of Nishan Toor, a sculptor of international fame. When she became more efficient in modeling, it was necessary to learn the fundamentals of mold making and ceramics, for she gradually had come to the conclusion that her work would be the making of small ceramic statues in the likeness of real children. The mold making she learned from Toor and the ceramic instruction was obtained at night school classes.

At home she experimented by modeling in clay and then making a ceramic mold of the head and shoulders of her daughter, her son-in-law, and her granddaughter, who was eight years old. Next she made a ceramic statue of the child. For this Mrs. Merwin worked mostly from a photograph, but the granddaughter lives next door and posed whenever she was asked.

When this was completed Mrs. Merwin felt competent to launch her business career. While looking at several snapshots of a friend's granddaughter, Mrs. Merwin suggested that she would like to make a ceramic figure of the child. The figure was completed and the recipient was so well pleased with this first one that she has since ordered several more figurines of her other grandchildren. The statues are about eight inches high, a size that is easy to model and which fits in Mrs. Merwin's 9-by-12-inch kiln.

For the first figurines Mrs. Merwin's charge to her customers was small, only $2.50, because, as she explained to them, she was inexperienced. A year after the first one was made to order she had modeled more than two dozen little figures, and the improvement in her work led her to raise her price to $5 each. That is what she charges now.

Up to the present time she has depended mostly on word-of-mouth advertising to bring her business. She received a few orders from people she met at the California Artists Fair held annually in the Pasadena City Hall Plaza. Friends of satisfied customers and repeat orders now keep her busy about five hours a day, six days a week. Next year she intends to buy a larger kiln and increase her business by advertising in national magazines.

Only one ceramic figure is given with each order for $5. But if a customer wants more than one, there is a small additional charge. Mrs. Merwin always makes at least two statues of each figure, one for the person who has commissioned it and another for her own personal collection. Adding a copy of each statue to her own collection is a splendid way to keep a record of the growth and improvement in her work.

TO MAKE a ceramic figurine, Mrs. Merwin begins by studying the photograph which is submitted to her to copy. The little statue must capture the personality of the child and be colored correctly for the clothing, complexion, hair and eyes. The figure is first modeled from Italian Plasticine, a dark grey oil clay that never dries out. It costs about $1.85 for two pounds and is purchased by the brick. It can be washed under water if it gets dusty or dirty. To keep it clean, the clay may be stored in a tin coffee can.

After the model has been worked over so that the last detail is satisfactory, a plaster of Paris mold is made of it. The mixture for this is about half water and half plaster, the amount used depending on how large the mold is to be. It is better to make too much than too little, for the plaster sets quickly and one is usually too busy to make a new batch unless another person is around to help. Perhaps a general estimate of materials needed for a six-by-six-inch mold would be one quart of water and one quart of plaster of Paris.

Some professional makers of molds place a quart or two of water in a dishpan, then sift in gradually the plaster of Paris until small islands remain above the top of the water. As long as the plaster sinks, more is needed. Do not try to make a mold unless four or five pounds of plaster are on hand. After a little experience, one can judge fairly well just how much will be needed.

"After there is enough plaster in the water," Mrs. Merwin advises, "wait two minutes, then stir gently, preferably with a slow motion of the hand, under the surface of the water to prevent air bubbles from getting in. Be sure to wear old clothes and shoes when mixing plaster and making molds. A large apron will be satisfactory over a dress or suit, but the shoes cannot be covered, and plaster is quite likely to sift or splatter down on them."

Since the modeled figure is made in soft clay, the plaster will pull away from the figure as it dries. This takes approximately thirty minutes. The Plasticine figure does not need to be covered with a tincture of green soap as is usual when making molds of objects in china or glass. However, the various parts of the mold must be separated from each other, and this is easily done by painting a thin coat of the liquid soap along the portions of the mold which fit onto another part of the mold.

THE MAKING of two-part molds is a simple process, but it seems complicated to the uninitiated. However, it requires study, and anyone interested in learning it can do so easily by reading chapters in books that cover the general subject of ceramic work. Most public libraries have one or more up-to-date books on ceramics. Book stores, too, carry a number in stock. Several books which can be recommended for beginners are "Potter's Primer," by Jane Snead, Pitman Publishing Corporation, New York, $1.50; "How to Do Ceramics," by Hellen H. Lion, Walter T. Foster Art Service, Inc., Laguna Beach, California, $1; "The Complete Book of Pottery Making," by John B. Kenny, Greenberg, New York, $7.50; and the following two books published by the Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, priced at $2.75 each: "Practical Pottery," by R. Horace Jenkins, and "Pottery Made Easy," by John Wolfe Dougherty.

Mrs. Merwin says that she makes the molds at the kitchen cabinet, because the enameled surface is ideal for working with these materials.

For a simple figure Mrs. Merwin makes a two-part mold. She determines the center line around the entire model and inserts small copper wedges so that they form a continuous line. The plaster of Paris is literally thrown against the figure with a thick soft brush or by hand. For small pieces the brush is easier to use. It must be washed out immediately in cold water to prevent the plaster from drying on the bristles. After the first coat of plaster is applied with the brush, Mrs. Merwin adds still more with a broad knife to make a thick mold, perhaps an inch through. Professional mold makers usually make much thicker walls on the molds because these are used over and over for hundreds of copies. It is necessary to have strong molds when they are handled hundreds of times. Since Mrs. Merwin usually makes only two or three copies of a figure, a thin mold is permissible. She makes the molds thin to keep them light in weight and easy to handle.

AFTER THE plaster mold has thoroughly dried, which may be from twelve to forty-eight hours, depending on the amount of dampness in the atmosphere, liquid slip or clay is poured in. The slip, as it is called by ceramic workers, may be purchased by the gallon from ceramic supply houses. The natural brownish-grey clay costs about 50 cents a gallon. Colored slip clays, called engobe, cost much more. The prices range from $1.40 to $2.50 per quart, the scarlet and dark flesh tone being the most expensive. Prices vary somewhat in different communities.

Large rubber bands slipped over the two parts of the mold will hold them together. A small opening, half an inch or an inch wide, is left in the base of the mold so that the clay can be poured in. To form this opening, take a piece of clay an inch in diameter and two inches long and stick it on the figurine at right angles to the base. After the plaster is brushed on, the clay stick or coil can be easily removed, leaving a place to pour in the clay.

The mold is filled full of the slip or liquid clay and more must be added every few minutes as the clay disappears or sinks down from the top of the opening. Sometimes slip is added five or six times before it remains up to the top. While the mold is being filled with the liquid clay it can be placed in a large dish or deep pan so that it stands upside down. The clay will adhere to the shell of the mold, and in thirty minutes the surplus clay can be poured out by turning the mold right side up. The clay that is poured out can be turned back into the original container and used over again.

The clay adheres to the mold as a shell, but as it dries it gently pulls away from the plaster. When this inner shell has dried or "set" enough to take the mold off, the modeler can see for the first time the little figurine in "green" ware. The time the clay requires to dry enough to take the mold off depends on the weather. On a warm day this is two or three hours, on a rainy day it may take from twelve to twenty hours.

THE LITTLE grey statue that comes out of the mold must be gently scraped with a knife and then sponged with water along the seams or edges where the two parts of the mold fitted together so that the clay will be smooth. This statue before being fired is called "green" ware and must dry thoroughly, usually from ten to twenty-four hours, before being placed in the kiln. If it is fired before all the water has evaporated, it will "blow up" or explode in the kiln. Another important point to remember is that an air hole must be left in the figure, so that it will not explode. Usually this hole is placed in the base.

Mrs. Merwin says that all these details seem like a long ritual of work, but except for the modeling, they all become automatic and can be accomplished easily after some practice. When she first began making ceramic figurines, she painted them with colored glazes, but these had a tendency to "run" and were not satisfactory for the fine details of hair and features. Now, after they are fired once, she gives the little statues a coating of clear glaze and fires them a second time. This gives them a china or porcelain finish and she can paint on the colors with china paints. These do not run and are excellent for eyes, mouth, hair and details on the costume.

In her small electric kiln, Mrs. Merwin can fire as many as six statues at a time. For the first firing she places in the kiln, along with the clay figures, an 06 cone. When the point of the cone turns completely over, the electricity is turned off and the kiln allowed to cool. For this small kiln the firing takes four and one-half to five hours. The time required for firing varies with the kiln, depending on the size, the type, etc. The second firing for the transparent glaze in Mrs. Merwin's kiln requires about the same number of hours as the first, and the cone used is number 019. Usually two more firings are needed for these figurines, one for the costume and trimmings, and another for the features and shadings.

TO ALL would-be modelers from children's portraits Mrs. Merwin suggests, "An object, animate or inanimate, with the child will usually enhance the figurine and give it greater appeal. For example, Nancy has her pet puppy in her arms, Sue Ann is holding a doll, while Darrell is sitting happily on a tree stump. One young lad was modeled dressed in his choir robes and singing from a book. Mary Alice, who is posed in her dancing dress, is now a grown woman; but the little clay likeness recaptured one of the memories of her childhood."