“The Paragon Dragon has changed my life. I have accepted jobs up to 500 square feet of tiles without trouble.” —Cha-Rie Tang
“A front-loading kiln is essential for tiles,” said custom tile maker and archi- tect Cha-Rie Tang. “I can load five lay- ers easily. I use the Paragon Dragon to do custom murals. Since I can fire up to 22" x 22", I carve relief panels in the style of Craftsman tiles.
“I have worked on the Pasadena landmark Greeneand Greene Robinson House, an entrance wall for Santa Barbara’s Tile Collection, Isabelle Greene’s fireplace, a fountain for All Nations Church, numerous private commissions, and the new Los Angeles Public Li- brary Exposition Park Branch.”
Create breathtaking pot- tery in this exciting kiln. The Dragon exudes power. Its 16,500 watts heat the 24” wide, 24” deep, 27” high inte- rior to cone 10 with ample power to spare. This results in long element life, because the elements do not “struggle”
to reach high temperatures. Dropped, re- cessed grooves seat industrial-gauge ele- ments for long life.
We offer a wide selection of top- and front-loading kilns. Call us for a free cata- log and the name of your lo- cal Paragon dealer.
Architect Cha-Rie Tang of Pasadena, California with her Para- gon Dragon front-loading kiln. This kiln is becoming a favorite with potters. It is easy to load, heavily insulated, and fires to cone 10.
2011 South Town East Blvd. Mesquite, Texas 75149-1122 800-876-4328 / 972-288-7557 Toll Free Fax 888-222-6450 www.paragonweb.com info@paragonweb.com Better Designed Kilns
There’s More
to Color than
Red, Yellow,
and Blue
Point of View
Areweanymorecreative todaythanourancestors were?Withourmodern understandingofcolor
theory, do we actually see a more colorful world? Our ancestors viewed the
landscape of the world in completely
natural light. The colors of their lives
reflected the colors of nature, not the
human-made and synthesized colors
of today.
Due to the advances in science
that allow us to extract many of these
natural pigments and dyes for use in
fabrication of other materials, our universe is now awash with every color
imaginable. However, nature alone
has provided millions of different
tints, hues, and color shades.
Infants and Color Preference
From an early age, so much emphasis
goes into teaching children the fundamentals of color theory, in particular
the primary colors of red, yellow, and
blue. Toys, building blocks, furniture, and so many other items used
in a preschool
environment are
manufactured
in these three
colors.
Yet, recent
research has uncovered that babies
as young as four months old show a
preference for certain colors. According to Dr. Anna Franklin from the
Surrey Baby Lab in England, “It’s a
myth that newborn babies are color-blind. They can see color, but it does
develop over the coming months.” Dr.
Nicola Pitchford and her colleague
Prof. Kathy Mullen of the Nottingham
Toddler Lab found
that children tend
to like the colors
they see first. She
wonders whether
this might be
because books and toys aimed at preschool children tend to use and name
primary colors.
Color and Development
During their first years of infancy,
children are overexposed to certain
colors while being significantly under-
exposed to others. But what about all
the other colors that children see?
In the classroom, metallic colors
are treated as special partly because
metallic paints are generally more
expensive, but also because they don’t
mix as well with the primary colors.
White, brown, black, and other earth
tones are also commonplace, but find
more limited use in our color curricu-
lum.
When children look out the window, they may not be able to verbalize it yet, but they are noticing and
identifying colors and shapes. Color is
one of the first ways preschoolers can
Joel Goobich
Color is one of the first ways
preschoolers can distinguish
among the things they see.
16 October2009 SchoolArts
Continued from page 16.
Encouraging Color Diversity
So why do we limit the colors that
children have with which to express
themselves? The overemphasis on the
primary and secondary colors may
actually be detrimental to the creative
development of children. They may
be less apt to mix or try other colors
since they are less readily available.
Mixing non-primary colors will
not generate the crisp secondary or
tertiary colors that can be made from
primary colors when added in correct
proportions. It can be frustrating and
less appealing to work with colors
that are murky. Often, this is the preconceived viewpoint of the adult caretaker or teacher and not the child, who
can be extremely happy with the new
“color” he or she creates. Discourag-ing children from mixing different
colors can be a major factor in slowing
the sense of discovery that is so critical to the development of analytical
reasoning.
Providing more guidance and
resources for teachers about the
importance of color and its role as a
means of communication in children
is of utmost importance. Encouraging
children to experiment with different color combinations is an essential
ingredient in promoting curiosity
and the exploratory process that is so
important to nurture.
Joel Goobich is the president of i3 Marketing LLC, a product development and
marketing company that specializes in
consumable products such as children’s
art materials. Joel@i3marketing.com
