Flowers can be modeled in parian clay upon a creamy-tinted ground with good effect. Various colors of deeper tinted natural clays, or clay which has been artificially colored in the body, can be used as the ground of such decorations. Light grounds are sometimes colored after the first firing, in the biscuit; or a ground can be painted in the method described in the previous chapter, while the vase is soft, and the modeled decoration can then be applied instead of the painting. Decorations of this character in high relief are frequently colored in natural tints, either under the glaze, in the biscuit; or over the glaze. The taste of this manner of finishing relief-work is somewhat questionable, and the same objection might apply to it as to colored sculpture. That it has received the sanction of the best factories in the world is no proof of its being in accord with correct taste, as the many (artistic) atrocities of Dresden and Capo di Monte testify. Some of the later Haviland faience, however, having a ground in the usual style of that ware with decoration in high relief, colored with subdued tints, harmonizing with the grounds, is so artistically done that one can hardly think it open to this objection, although it can not be considered an improvement upon the earlier work of this establishment in which the colored decorations were simply painted upon the surface. It is only to the use of colors which imitate those of nature upon modeled decorations that there could be any objection. Relief-work may be conventional in its form, or colored conventionally, in one color or many, or gilded, with perfect taste. The latter method produces a fine effect, but, to make it successful, the color of the ground should be well chosen, and the design simple in form and not too much detached from the surface. The gilding looks best when left unburnished, and should only be rubbed enough to give the effect of dead gold. Next, we have applied designs in low relief. These are made in several different ways, according to the effects desired. Work of this kind is more commonly executed by the method used in the production of Wedgwood-ware. The designs to be applied are first modeled in clay. Casts are then taken of the models in plaster of paris. Clay of the kind desired for the relief designs is then pressed in the mold and the edges trimmed off. The design can be removed from the mold by the aid of a flat, steel instrument, with a short, broad blade; or a palette knife, which when pressed upon the clay adheres to it and detaches it from the mold. It can then be transferred to the piece of ware to be decorated, to which it is made to adhere by the use of “slip,” as described before.