Courtesy of the Rookwood Potteries

Firing the Kiln

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES

SUPERVISING EDITOR

FRED D. CRAWSHAW, M.E.

Professor of manual arts, the university of Wisconsin

INDUSTRIAL ARTS DESIGN

A TEXTBOOK OF PRACTICAL METHODS FOR STUDENTS,
TEACHERS, AND CRAFTSMEN

BY

WILLIAM H. VARNUM

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF DRAWING AND DESIGN

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY

CHICAGONEW YORK

Copyright 1916 by

Scott, Foresman and Company

[3]

PREFACE

Place for the Book. As a textbook, Industrial Arts Designis a practical guide for designing in wood, clay, and base and preciousmetals. It is intended for individual student use in the High Schools,Normal Schools, and Colleges and as a reference book for elementaryschool teachers. Its more complex problems are intended as definitehelps to the industrial arts designer or craftsman. The wood problemsare treated with special reference to their adaptability to benchand cabinet work.

Need of the Book. It has been written to fill a decided demandfor a textbook that shall, without loss of time, directly apply well-recognizedprinciples of general design to specific materials andproblems encountered in the Industrial Arts. A brief description ofthe decorative processes adapted to the materials under discussionwith the design principles directly applying to these processes, insuresdesigns that may be worked out in the studio or shop. It is hopedthat this provision will eliminate the large number of impracticaldesigns that are frequently entirely unfitted to the technic of the craft.This lack of mutual technical understanding between the teacherof design and the shop work instructor is the cause of friction that itis hoped will be removed by the methods advocated in these pages.

The Author's Motive. It has been the intention to reduce unrelatedand abstract theories to a minimum and reach directly rulesand conclusions that shall be applicable to typical materials in commonuse in the schools and industries. The original conceptionmaterialized in the publication of a series of articles upon Designin the Industrial Arts Magazine, in 1915. These articles were favorablyreceived and their results in the schools proved highly satisfactory.Through this encouragement, the articles have beenreprinted in book form, enriched by the addition of illustrations,review questions, and three chapters on color with its applications.

Industrial Arts Design develops the principles of industrialdesign in a new and logical form which, it is believed, will simplifythe teaching of craft design. Chapters I to V deal with the elementaryproblems confronting the designer as he begins the first stepson his working drawing; Chapters VI to VIII show the methods bywhich he may express his individuality through contour or outlineenrichment, while Chapters IX to ...