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Wherever she has lived, in Ohio, in Florida, there have been pupils eager for sets of china for less than the $10 a plate and $10 a cup and saucer price prevailing at many gift shops.

Mrs. Beeman was a girl of 16, living in Bowling Green, Ohio, when a friend of her mother's who did china painting interested her in the art. The friend gave her a set of china paints and showed her how to mix them. Mrs. Beeman, then Hazel Dern, had been dabbling in water colors, painting forget-me-nots. She owned a white china cup and saucer and the friend persuaded her to see what she could do with them. She painted them in the forget-me-not pattern, and the friend was so well pleased with her first effort that she had the teacher from whom she took china painting fire the cup and saucer in her kiln just as it was. Soon after this Mrs. Beeman began taking china painting lessons for the price of 50 cents an hour.

When Mrs. Beeman was 18, she had so advanced in china painting that when her teacher moved away she bought her kiln and took over her classes. The kiln was a Revelation No. 3 and when new cost approximately $250. She paid $5 a month rent for the one-room studio. There were only seven or eight pupils in the class when she took it over, but she worked to expand it and soon had additions. Also she formed classes in adjacent towns. These classes were held in the home of one interested in china painting and in return for the use of her home she was given free lessons.

While Mrs. Beeman was teaching china painting she was also taking advanced lessons in the same subject. She was likewise studying water color painting.

IN 1906 Mrs. Beeman was married and in due time four girls were born to her and Mr. Beeman. Mrs. Beeman was busy with household duties and the care of her family, but she managed most of the time, even in those occupied years, to continue giving china painting lessons. But after the girls grew up, naturally she was able to devote more time to her painting hobby.

There was a time during the war when it was difficult to obtain white china for painting. China painters had been depending on the foreign market, and suddenly it was cut off. Then American manufacturers came out with American china. American china today has not been perfected, but its quality is improving. Flaws are not uncommon in it. Also its finish does not paint as easily as the foreign china and some of it cracks in firing.

At this time Mrs. Beeman does not have a china painting class—her lessons are private ones, and she caters to the busy housewife and working girl, scheduling lessons to suit their convenience. Lessons run for a two-hour period (she considers shorter lessons inadequate) and she charges $1 an hour for them.

Mrs. Beeman may obtain the china for her pupils or they can obtain it direct from a manufacturer. She patronizes W.A. Maurer Company of Chicago, Illinois, one of the principal firms in this country engaged in selling white china and materials for decorating it.

WHEREAS conventional decoration for china used to be fashionable, today there is a trend toward naturalistic designs. Pupils are of course free to choose their own designs for painting, but Mrs. Beeman's lovely collection is helpful to them in deciding. She has many patterns in her own sets of china from which to choose. She has already given complete sets to her three married daughters, and there is a beautiful set in an original orange blossom pattern ready for the youngest unmarried daughter. Other sets are in forget-me-nots, various colors of roses, and in conventional designs. She will show you saucers she copied to match a plate which her mother owned in the English Wedgwood design. This is a difficult pattern, demanding many intricate brush marks, and the remarkable likeness to the original that she achieved shows plainly that she is a master of her art. Other treasures she owns, which pupils like to duplicate, include a tea set, of which the pot and sugar and creamer are of Belleek china, a tankard and a punch bowl. These latter two took four paintings and firings.

Most of Mrs. Beeman's designs are original and she sketches them free hand on the china with a marking pencil. Pupils, if they have this ability, can do likewise; otherwise the pattern to be painted on the china can be traced on it by the means of a special paper.

China paints come in glass vials in powder form. The powder is mixed with painting oil, which may be obtained from an artist supply house or can be purchased from the corner drug store. Mrs. Beeman has her own formula, and she has the oil she uses mixed to its proportions. The formula is one passed on to her years ago by her china painting teacher, and she passes it on to her pupils.

THE SHAPES of brushes for china painting vary from those with square ends to those with fine points, and each plays its own particular role in the decorating. Brushes used must be of good quality and must be thoroughly cleaned before changing colors with them and also after using. Clean turpentine is used for this.

Only a small amount of paint can be applied to china at one time; otherwise, the paint may chip. When painted, the china is fired in a kiln, after which it is painted and fired a second time. Some larger pieces must be painted and fired for three or four times to obtain the depth of color desired. After a design is painted on, it is filled in with tinting. To soften brush marks, while paint is wet, it is gone over with a piece of cotton wrapped in a piece of silk. This patting smooths the tinting and blends the colors.

Raised paste designs (which appear as raised dots) are put on with a small brush.

The price of china colors varies. The vials range in cost from 30 cents to $1.50, the price being dependent upon the color, ruby being most expensive.

Klondike Roman gold comes in powder form. It costs about $30 an ounce but a very small portion can be purchased for 75 cents. The powder is mixed with clean turpentine. It is put on large surfaces with a brush but on small surfaces, such as the edges of plates, it is put on with the finger. It appears brown when applied but changes to gold when it is fired. After the gold is fired, it is dull but when burnished or rubbed with spun glass, it becomes lustrous.

AT PRESENT, kilns for firing china cost from $150 to $600. Some are heated electrically, while others burn gas or oil. Mrs. Beeman's kiln which she uses today is an old Revelation No. 4 (when she went to Florida from Ohio she sold the Revelation No. 3 which she then owned, it being too large to move conveniently). It is quite small but is adequate for her use. Stilts are placed between the china in the kiln, unless it contains an unglazed rim, when it can be piled together. Her kiln will take care of twelve or thirteen dinner plates.

Her kiln burns kerosene. The oil is fed through a pipe from a tank opposite the kiln. The oil is fed in drops, and the heat regulated by their rapidity. The kiln is run for from three to three and one-half hours (large kilns require only about two hours). It takes about two hours for the kiln to get sufficiently hot for the dishes to appear almost transparent, when looked at through the peep hole provided in the kiln. After this heat is reached, it is maintained for another hour and a half. The heat is then turned off and the kiln allowed to cool. It takes approximately twenty-four hours for this, and the dishes should not be removed while hot or they may break upon coming into contact with the cold outside air.

Because the cost of kilns is high many decorators take their painted pieces to the nearest professional for firing. Mrs. Beeman fires some for outsiders, charging from 10 to 12 cents a piece for firing. The W.A. Maurer Company advises that many customers mail their work to them (in Chicago) for firing.

MRS. BEEMAN teaches her pupils how to paint by allowing them to watch her, and by supervising their efforts. She recalls one teacher she had who taught her pupils to paint by allowing them to watch her. Of course what they could learn from such a teacher was limited, for one cannot learn to paint china without painting china, any more than he can learn to be a chef by the arm chair reading of recipe books.

Mrs. Beeman's method of helping her private pupils to acquire china is probably unique. She feels that the time which pupils buy from her is wholly theirs and she uses it not only to instruct them in china painting but in painting china for them. Hence, a pupil's set of china grows steadily. An advanced pupil may paint one dinner plate, of a not too elaborate design, while Mrs. Beeman paints two for her (the pupil paying for the china, naturally) during a two-hour lesson period. A minimum of two paintings and two firings will be required to finish the plates, it will be remembered.

The amount of china painting which a pupil can do in a year is governed by his talent and his ability. However, Mrs. Beeman cites one pupil who took seventy-five lessons over a three-year period, and during that time painted a complete set of china for herself and many other pieces as well.

Mrs. Beeman obtains her pupils through friends and former pupils.

ONE INTERESTED in china painting might well consider learning the art with the view to giving lessons in her own community, if there is an opening for such teaching there. In almost every large city there are teachers who hold classes in china painting. Many of the larger Catholic convents have teachers holding classes. Women can be sold on the idea of hand painting their own china through advertising in periodicals and on the radio.

The W.A. Maurer Company of Chicago sells several books on china painting. Some are written especially for the beginner, who can learn to paint alone, although it is advisable, if at all possible, to take at least a few lessons from one experienced in the art.

Mrs. Beeman sells hand-painted china dishes through a local gift shop. Plates which cost around $1.25 sell for $10 when painted. Cups and saucers costing about the same sell for $10. Bread and butter and fruit plates costing about 60 cents sell for $3. A sugar and creamer costing about $4 sells for $10. Salt and pepper shakers sell for $3.50. Mrs. Beeman can paint a plate in about an hour; the plate must of course be fired in her kiln and then painted and fired a second time. A set of twelve dinner plates, each painted with a different natural flower spreading over it from one edge to the other, with no banding, sold for $300, according to W.J. Heiser, president of the W.A. Maurer Company. Also he says that large quail, ducks or geese in flight are used and sell at high prices in the sporting goods departments in Chicago.

Mrs. Beeman's ability to copy old patterns is sought after by antique dealers. Frequently they hire her to paint shades to match old lamps, chairs to match tables, etc.

The gift shops through which she sells retain twenty per cent commission on her products.

Painted trays sell well. She buys small ones from the ten-cent stores for 10 cents, paints them and sells them for $1. Customers furnish larger sized trays and she gets $4 for painting them. Painted salad bowls also sell readily.

MRS. BEEMAN gives away much of her time, and talent. As teacher of a beginners' class in the Sunday School of the First Christian Church of Ocala she puts considerable effort and thought into her pupils' art work, and co-ordinates it with their Bible study. Also she is active in the W.C.T.U., broadcasting over a local station several times during the year, and regularly making hand-painted booklets for the annual White Ribbon recruit drive. Mrs. Beeman is also lavish with her talents at Christmas time and in connection with the birthdays of friends. When young people from her church marry, she remembers them with "'heirloom" pieces of china, beautiful trays or other gifts rich with her individual touch. Her home is a credit to the artist in her. Around the walls of her bathroom a border of swans seem to swim amid colorful water and fragrant lilies. They were born of her paint brush. On the walls in the other rooms one sees enchanting water color pictures, and here and there, bright specimens of her china painting.