[Sidenote: Essentials of Good Surface Enrichment]

These salient areas should determine the surface enrichment appropriate to the structure, so that the enrichment: (1) will lighten or soften necessarily heavy construction as in Figure 403; (2) support or apparently strengthen good structure, Figure 413; (3) add interest to large unbroken or otherwise uninteresting surfaces as ill.u.s.trated in Figure 405. To aid in producing the desired results, we have the technical processes mentioned in Chapter XIII as follows: (1) Piercing; (2) Etching; (3) Chasing; (4) Enameling; (5) Inlaying; (6) Stone setting; (7) Building; (8) Carving; (9) Planishing; (10) Frosting; (11) Oxidizing. On the plates for this chapter, the figure generally following the cut number refers to the process, as: Figure 446, 3.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 406a.--Mainly Objects Designed to be Seen from Above]

SURFACE DESIGN EVOLUTION

Rule 11a. _The preliminary steps toward surface enrichment should be thought out before they are drawn._

A designer will be materially helped if he devotes a few moments of thought to his design problem before he applies the pencil to the paper.

In the end the time given to thinking out his problem will gain for him both increased excellence of design and rapidity of execution, provided his thinking is systematic. A sequential order of points to be observed is given below. The object of systematic thought is to form a mental picture of the enrichment to be in full accord with the materials and construction and to be sympathetically related to the structural axes and to the contours. The unenriched ma.s.s has been designed and we are now ready for the consideration of surface enrichment in the following order.

[Sidenote: Summary of Steps in Surface Enrichment]

(_a_) _Placing the Zone of Service._

1. Where is the zone of service?

(_b_) _Cla.s.sification of Form_.

1. Is the object flat, shallow and circular, low and cylindrical, high and cylindrical?

(_c_) _Placing the Zone of Enrichment._

1. Is the enrichment to be seen from above or from the side? See Figure 406a.

2. What point of the structure suggested by the form needs surface enrichment? Is it the primary ma.s.s, appendages, terminals, links, or details? Let the area selected become the zone of enrichment.

(_d_) _Amount of Enrichment._

1. Will the enrichment cover the full surface, part surface (center or margin), or accented outline?

(_e_) _Location of Inceptive Axis._

1. Is the zone of enrichment a.s.sociated with a square, rectangle, hexagon, or irregularly shaped flat plane, circular or cylindrical surface? Figure 470.

2. How should the inceptive axis be placed in the zone of enrichment to harmonize with the structural forms suggested by 1 (e) and the point from which it is viewed 1 (c)? See the violation of this latter point in Figure 439. Presumably this inceptive axis will be a vertical center line, horizontal center line, diagonal, diameter, radius, the element of a cylinder, or a dynamic curve for a free border.

(_f_) _Point of Concentration._

[Sidenote: Surface Enrichment]

1. Where should the point of concentration be located upon the inceptive axis?

(_g_) _Unison of Enrichment and Materials._

1. What decorative process will be adaptable to service, the material, and the contemplated design?

[Ill.u.s.tration: SURFACE ENRICHMENT OF LARGE PRIMARY Ma.s.sES IN BASE METALS

TREATMENT OF FLAT AND SEMI-FLAT SURFACES

_Courtesy of P. and F. Corbin_

PLATE 59]

[Sidenote: Summary of Steps in Surface Enrichment]

(_h_) _Type of Units_.

1. What design units are suited to the process selected in (_g_), appropriate to the texture and structural lines of the form to be enriched and to its ultimate service? Choice may be made from nature, geometric pattern, or historic ornament.

The above points may all be _thought out_. Now, with some a.s.surance, the designer may take his pencil and begin to _draw_ the units in their proper position upon or about the inceptive axis with the point of concentration correctly placed in position in the inceptive axis. Rules and suggestions for this execution have been previously given.

(_i_) _Designing of the Units_.

1. How should the units be drawn to be in harmony with the inceptive axis, the contours, and to each other?

The above points of approach to surface enrichment represent a logical reasoning process which supplies a line of sequential and developmental pictures that will reduce to a minimum the element of doubt and fog through which the average designer approaches his problem. The steps will, in time, become practically automatic and may be thought out in a surprisingly short period of time.

Rule 11c. _The type of design unit for large ma.s.ses should be bolder than similar designs for small primary ma.s.ses._

[Sidenote: Large Ma.s.ses and Their Treatment]

As may be expected from briefly considering the ill.u.s.trations for this chapter as compared with those for small primary ma.s.ses, Chapter XIII, it is seen that the units for base and precious metals are larger and bolder than those used for smaller ma.s.ses. The more effective designs are those whose appropriateness, simplicity, and correct structural proportions and relations appeal to our sense of fitness and beauty.

Figures 403, 404, and 406 are composed of projects designed mainly on vertical inceptive axes or center lines. The freely balanced natural units in Figure 403 have the zone of enrichment in the upper portion of the appendage (handles), and the point of concentration in the upper portion of the zone of enrichment. Formal symmetrical balance controls the placing of enrichment in Figure 404. Initial letters, through lack of consideration of design principles, are frequently misplaced on ma.s.ses with little or no consideration given to their ma.s.s relations with the structural contours. As a contrast to this, notice the carefully considered relations between the letter _W_ on the tea strainer in Figure 404 and its adaptation to the contours of the appendage. The stone enrichment on the handle of the paper cutter in Figure 404 in no way interferes with its use as a cutter and is therefore appropriate as surface enrichment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SURFACE ENRICHMENT OF LARGE PRIMARY Ma.s.sES IN BASE METAL

TREATMENT OF FLAT PLANES IN CAST BRONZE

_Door Plates, Courtesy of P. and F. Corbin_

PLATE 60]

[Sidenote: Large Flat and Semi-flat Surfaces in Precious Metal, Plate 58]

The pierced enrichment of the silver box in Figure 405 contains vertical and horizontal lines which bring the decorative human figures into harmonious relation with the structural contours. Figure 406 shows both formal and free balance with center and full surface zones of enrichment. _C_ and _D_ could have been improved by a more strongly marked point of concentration which would have added more character to the designs.

[Sidenote: Flat and Semi-flat Surfaces in Base Metal, Plate 59]