For Pasadena Heritage, Pattern Keepers
Workshop Resources
Introduction: Open Archives
Inspiration On Tile
Batchelder Catalog (other relevant local catalogs include Claycraft Potteries & Malibu Potteries archives which has tile, books & catalogs).
Inspiration On Plants
Inspiration On Birds
Animal-Speak by Ted Andrews
Inspiration On Dreaming
Materials Class 1
4x6 Foam Plates x100 on Amazon
Teal LePen Pen x12 on Amazon
5M Posca Markers x3 on Amazon
7x10 Clairefontaine Natural Pad x20 on Amazon
Materials Class 2
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Book 1: The Principles of Design
P2 — A note on: "wholesome imagination"
This is also an important factor, for all art—music, poetry, design, or what not—must spring from the "play impulse"; the effort must be free and spontaneous, not a matter of duty or drudgery, nor with the expectation of immediate pecuniary benefit. The solution to each problem must be pleasure, otherwise little will be gained in the end. However, as one of our aims will be to stimulate the imagination.
P6 — Pure design defined
Tone means value (dark, light) or color (green, blue, red)
Measure means size (long, short, large, small)
Shape means contour and bounding line (straight, curved, square, round)
P10, P26, P30, P38, P48, P54, P88, P147, P148, P159 — Exercise notes
Exercise with stick, half circle and spiral—make as many forms
Exercise move space and orientation, variants
Exercise on stroke width
Exercise on movement & dominance
Exercise on derivatives, flower but from what angle, old or budding...
Exercise detailed illustration with the big form and small form
Exercise on grids and space division
Exercise bounding your pattern, what kind of boundary
Exercise in styling and consistency
Exercise how to crop your composition
P53 — On the work of craftsmen
To understand and appreciate such work is to turn to it again and again for study and inspiration. It survives as a graphic reminder of days long past, when men received compensation for trying to live up to their ideals; when there was less hurry in the world and more time for thought and care in the perfection of the piece of work. Beauty in common things was the rule, not the exception, for workers were craftsmen in those days, designers as well as artisans, hence something well done was more highly esteemed than speed and cheapness of execution. Workers knew the joy of work, because the whole man—mind, eye, hand, heart and soul—entered into the
Pure design is the composition of tones, measures, shapes for the sake of rhythm, balance and harmony, the principles of order and beauty, completion of a task. Too many of us in these days work eight hours per day, for a consideration and spend the remaining sixteen hours trying to forget our work.
P152 — Learning from natural forms
From a study of the growth and character of natural forms, infinite suggestions may be gained for line and mass arrangements. Insects, animals, birds, plants all contain suggestions of great value, if the student can but bring himself into sympathy with these things, can read the messages they have for him and has sufficient command of the principles of his art to enable him to properly apply the ideas thus offered.
P160 — Nature and design
Nature does not offer us a storehouse of ready-made designs. As design is the orderly expression of an idea, the best nature can do is to help us with suggestions. A thoughtful examination of the structure and development of shells, cones, insects, fishes, plant and animal life must make the serious student marvel at the orderliness of things in nature, the disposition and arrangement of parts, the interrelation of lines and areas, the perfect balance for which nature strives. The hand of the master designer is everywhere in evidence. But no matter how orderly nature may be, even to the rigid severity of the crystal, how shapely in line and mass, or how transiently beautiful in tone, it is not within the province of design to utilize these things without the play of the human invention and imagination. We are workers in different materials and under different conditions from those governing nature, and any attempt to reproduce natural forms in wood, clay, iron, on cloth or paper, is a mistaken effort on the part of the designer.
Book 2: Design Theory & Practice
Preface — We learn by doing
The purpose of the book is best accomplished by the presentation of a series of problems. We learn by doing. In setting mind and hand to the solution of a definite problem, we meet and overcome questions which no amount of reading can foresee. We may attend lectures and indulge in critical discussions of design in terms of language; we may become well versed in history of art, and in biographical data pertaining to the lives of artists; yet find ourselves far removed from any true appreciation of the work of the past, or quite at a loss when confronted by a simple problem in construction design demanding artistic invention.
Preface — American design education
The teacher of design in America must meet conditions quite different from those found in the Old World. Each country abroad has distinctive national traditions. We have no traditions; in which fact is our best hope. Our salvation is to be sought not in borrowing from Europe, but in boldly striking for an elementary basis on which to build, in digging for bed rock on which to raise our superstructure. The student abroad is at all times within easy reach of museums and galleries, of churches and monuments, through which the development of the art of his own and other countries may be traced, and which offer facilities for comparative study not open to most students in America. Books, photographs, even casts, are insufficient to stimulate the imagination or develop the thought and fine feeling essential to fine work; much less do they furnish a clue to work expressing something of American life and character.
P1 — Design is persistent work
The ability to design is not a secret that Nature has vouchsafed to genius alone. It is quite as much a matter of persistent work as of fortuitous inheritance. Indeed, there is so much of common sense and orderly thought involved in the process of building up a design that a resignation to failure is often an unconscious admission of one's own lack of persistence and energy. There is no vest-pocket guide through which one may find a short cut to distinction; no rules or recipes which one may employ in lieu of personal thought and effort. To be sure, we cannot all produce work of equal merit and interest. To bring to that which we do accomplish some measure of understanding and appreciation is at least worth while. Work always rises to the level of the worker—never higher. To give thought, that one may do common things uncommonly well, is the first essential toward the achievement of important things.
P2 — Instinct versus intellect
A great deal of the most interesting creative work left to us from the past was done at times where designing was more or less an instinctive process. It was instinct rather than reason that guided the primitive worker at all times. That is to say, he designed from the heart, not from the head. He made no effort to analyze motives or define principles: his work was an unconscious response to the needs, the thought, and the life about him, to the environment in which he lived. The same may be said of peasant work, and of a considerable part of medieval crafts work. With us designing is an intellectual process, self-conscious, self-critical at all times. We cannot, if we would, escape the traditions and precedents of the centuries preceding us; nor is there in the complex of our own life a thought or feeling sufficiently dominant to shape our work into a distinctive character or style. More than ever before, each individual is a "style" unto himself. Instead of playing many variations of a single tune we play many tunes with a variety of instruments. It becomes the function of a teacher to point out the way and call attention to the beauty of the scenery, not to drive or push.
P3 — Why we study design
We study design, then, to stimulate the imagination and arouse latent ideas, to develop original thought, to strengthen judgment, and to acquire the power to express ourselves through the terms and materials employed in a way that shall be, at least, clear and coherent.
P18 — Beyond efficiency
The enrichment does not necessarily await its turn until all other questions have been solved. Each point mentioned furnishes a clue to the designer in the development of product; but, alas! Only a clue. There are many crossroads between the idea and a beautiful expression of it, many opportunities for the unwary to go astray. Mere adequacy is not beauty. The present generation is abundantly endowed with practical sense, leading to the remarkable mechanical inventions of our time. To pursue an idea through the practical making phase alone may lead to a locomotive, a linotype, a machine gun; in other words, to the highest degree of efficiency. Complete efficiency may excite our admiration; but beauty springs from an impulse that craves more than efficient service.
P32 — Repetition versus rhythm
The mere repetition of a unit at regular intervals is, at the best, a mechanical process; we can hardly distinguish it by calling it designing. But by interrelating or binding together the various units of repeat in such way that each unit supports or completes its neighbors we are really beginning to exercise a faculty for designing.
P36 — The principle of repetition
This type of rhythm is often spoken of as the "principle of repetition." But the idea of repetition, like alternation and variety, is not itself a principle. Repetition, to bring order to elements of a design, must be regular. The reason for a regular repetition is to enable the eye to find a way through all the details of a pattern.
P81 — The burden of knowledge
We know too much to be true, and simple, and spontaneous in our own work. We are burdened with too many conflicting traditions and precedents. In this day of inexpensive casts, pictures, and photographs we find the world's work spread out before us. We select for purposes of study those things that are far beyond us in the terms of our own experience. We are induced to imitate and copy those things because of their manifest superiority over our own immature efforts. We are impatient of time, and study, and experiment. If we are workers in wood, or metal, or what not, we find it easy to achieve a logical solution of the constructive demands of a problem, but difficult to complete it with appropriate refinement and enrichment; we have no ideas to express, so bring forth a formidable array of arguments to prove that there never was such a thing as originality in design; and in the meantime complacently appropriate the work of others to our own ends.
P82 — Primitive art as refreshing breeze
Primitive art comes as a refreshing breeze. Here were people with real needs to meet with such beauty as they could devise. They gathered, perforce, their own materials from the mountain slopes and the river bottoms, made with their own hands all the tools, and wrought a product simple and honest in construction, strong and insistent in its grasp of fundamentals. The work of primitive man comes from his heart; from his nature rather than from his knowledge. He designed beautifully because he could not help it, and the step from his idea to its vigorous execution is so simple that it can be readily studied.
P88 — Thinking in materials
The designer should learn to think in terms of the materials he wishes to use. Lack of knowledge of the limitations and possibilities of materials, of the peculiar charms inherent in wood or stone, iron or glass, accounts for much of the characterless work of today. A man who has carved in wood will find a broad field of suggestion in the twist and turn of the grain, the texture, the finish, the handling of the tools—in the very things that distinguish wood carving from stone carving.
P152-153 — The age of craftsmen
The sphere of art was sufficiently broad to encompass any task to which a man might turn his hand; nothing, from a cathedral to a candlestick, was too trivial or unimportant to be given its touch of distinctive beauty. It was an age of what we now term industrial art; but then there was no other kind of art. Our modern phrase of "art for art's sake" was unknown either in theory or in practice. It was a time when "any village mason could build a church and any village carpenter could crown it with a hammer-beam roof." What the work of the early craftsmen lacked in refinement and polish was more than compensated for in its vigorous grasp of essentials, in its truth and unaffected invention, and, above all else, in the fact that its appeal was comprehended by all.
P268 — Final counsel
Question the reason for every element that enters into a design; make each detail perform consistent service. Learn the value of concentration; furnish the eye with a dominant thought and group other thoughts in subordinate relations. Do not deplore lack of incentive, lack of interesting materials. The world is full of noble, inspiring ideas. The humble plant by your own doorstep, if you know how to use it to good advantage, may be given quite as much interest in design as the Persians gave to the pomegranate. Look about you, to your own environment, for motifs, not wander afar. Last of all, do not be "clever." No term could be more of a reproach in art than this. Art is painstaking; it demands ceaseless work, toil, drudgery it may be. That which is easiest won is generally least worth while. The worker must ever be open-minded and watch against clever mannerisms as against a drought that dries up the river at its source.
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Black Sage (Salvia mellifera) Beyond its medicinal and food uses, black sage held spiritual significance in cleansing and protection ceremonies. The Chumash called it qashiiy and burned it to drive away negative spirits and illness. Healers would brush patients with sage bundles during healing rituals. The plant was so integral to daily life that its presence indicated good gathering territory - where black sage grew abundantly, people knew they'd find other important resources. Women would gather the seeds in late summer using seed beaters, a communal activity that reinforced social bonds.
Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) The Tongva and other groups timed winter ceremonies around toyon berry harvests. The berries required careful processing - eaten raw, they're bitter and mildly toxic, so they were traditionally steamed or roasted, which also made them sweeter. This knowledge of proper preparation was passed down through generations. Toyon symbolized abundance and survival through winter months. The wood was also prized for making excellent arrow shafts due to its strength and straightness.
California Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum) Called pasil by the Kumeyaay, buckwheat was celebrated as a reliable, drought-resistant food source that bloomed when other plants struggled. Elders taught children the right timing for seed collection - too early and they'd scatter, too late and they'd blow away. The tea made from leaves was considered a gift for expectant mothers and those with stomach ailments. Its flowers also provided critical late-season nectar when little else bloomed, making it important for the ecosystem that tribes managed.
California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) The Ohlone, Yokuts, and Southern California tribes knew the poppy as a gentle medicine plant, particularly valued for children. Called kopeat by some groups, its petals and roots were carefully prepared into poultices and teas. Mothers would give children weak poppy tea to ease toothaches or help fretful babies sleep - the plant contains mild sedative alkaloids similar to but much weaker than its opium poppy relatives. For adults, healers used it to relieve headaches, nerve pain, and anxiety. The Costanoan peoples made a poultice from crushed roots for wounds and skin irritations.
Importantly, indigenous knowledge emphasized moderation - too much could cause drowsiness and nausea, so proper dosing was part of a healer's expertise passed down through apprenticeship. The poppy also held symbolic meaning. Its brilliant orange blooms carpeting hillsides in spring signaled renewal and the end of winter hardships. Some groups incorporated the flowers into coming-of-age ceremonies for young women. The plant's ability to close its petals at night and reopen with sunshine was noted in stories about cycles, rest, and awakening.
Interestingly, Spanish colonizers later adopted indigenous poppy knowledge, and it eventually became California's state flower in 1903 - though by then, much of the traditional preparation knowledge had been disrupted or lost. Today, indigenous herbalists are working to preserve and revive this ancestral plant wisdom.
Ginkgo Biloba (Maidenhair Tree) In China, ginkgo has been revered for over 4,000 years as both a sacred tree and powerful medicine. Buddhist monks planted ginkgos around temples, believing the trees connected earth to heaven - some of these ancient specimens still stand today, over 1,000 years old. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners called it bái guǒ (white fruit) and prescribed the roasted nuts to improve memory, ease breathing problems, and support longevity.
The nuts required careful preparation - roasting removed mild toxins while preserving their healing properties, knowledge passed through generations of apprenticeship. The fan-shaped leaves held symbolic meaning, representing duality and resilience with their two lobes symbolizing yin and yang. Because ginkgo survived the ice age and can live for thousands of years, it became an emblem of endurance - one famous ginkgo in Hiroshima survived the atomic bomb just 1 kilometer from the blast, sprouting new growth the following spring as a symbol of survival.
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Baby's Breath — modesty, sweet beauty
Basil — integration, discipline and dragon force
Begonia — balance, psychism
Buttercup — self-worth, the power of words
Cactus — manifestation of riches and beauty
Carnation — deep love, healing, love of self
Clover — luck, love and fidelity, kindness
Daffodil — power of inner beauty, clarity of thought
Dahlia — higher development, self-worth, and dignity
Daisy — increasing awareness, creativity, inner strength
Gardenia — purity of action and purpose, emotional help
Geranium — happiness, healing, and renewed joy
Gladiola — receptivity to divine will
Hibiscus — femininity, sexuality and warmth, new creation
Hyacinth — overcoming of grief, gentleness, inner beauty
Iris — higher inspiration, psychic purity
Lavender — magic, love, protection, healing, and vision
Lily — birth, godly mind, and humility
Marigold — fidelity, longevity, loving sacrifice
Morning Glory — breaking down of the old, spontaneity
Rose — love, strength through silence, passion
Rosemary — power, clarity of thought, sensitivity
Snapdragon — will force, creative expression, clairaudience
Sunflower — opportunities, self-actualization, happiness
Violet — modesty, fulfillment, psychic sensitivity
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In his groundbreaking work Animal Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small, Ted Andrews illuminates how animals serve as messengers, teachers, and guides in our spiritual journeys. Andrews teaches that every creature carries specific medicine—qualities, powers, and wisdom that can awaken corresponding aspects within ourselves. Birds, with their ability to traverse earth and sky, hold particular significance as bridges between the mundane and the sacred, the physical and the spiritual. Notice which patterns call to you. Pay attention to which behaviors resonate. The birds you are drawn to often reflect qualities you embody, need to develop, or are being called to remember.
Paradise Tanager (Tangara chilensis)
The Paradise Tanager wears seven distinct colors: light green head, sky blue throat and breast, glossy black upper back and wings, crimson red lower back, and golden yellow rump. White ocelli edged with black dot the body. The plumage has an underlying achromatic layer that intensifies the structural colors, making them appear impossibly vivid.
Each morning before other birds awaken, Paradise Tanagers emerge from the mist to meticulously preen their feathers. They move in mixed-species flocks, demonstrating cooperation across differences. Both male and female share identical magnificent plumage— a rare equality in the bird world. They forage in the high canopy, teaching us to reach for higher perspectives.
Vogelkop Lophorina (Lophorina superba)
The male appears deceptively simple—black with subtle iridescence. Hidden are erectile cape feathers and specialized plumes delicate as fine orange peel. The breast shield contains metallic blue-green. The outer cape feathers are extraordinarily elongated. Most remarkably, these feathers absorb 99.95 percent of light, creating a "super black" that makes the bird disappear into void when displayed, with only the brilliant blue crescent visible.
The male meticulously prepares his performance space, clearing every leaf and twig—even scrubbing the branch smooth with leaves. When a female approaches, he glides from side to side with smooth, controlled movements. He transforms completely, spreading his cape into a crescent moon, creating a "frowning face." He rhythmically snaps his tail feathers together like fingers, teaching the value of preparation, transformation, and presenting your authentic self.
Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera)
Males wear bronze-green upperparts that shift to coppery-bronze on the head. A white spot sits behind the eye. The throat appears dusky, while the underparts shimmer in metallic green. The forked tail gleams blackish bronze-green. Females mirror the green upperparts but soften to white below, with grayish throats speckled with green. Both sexes have iridescent gorgets that flash different colors—violet, blue, or green—teaching that truth changes with perspective.
This hummingbird's bill exceeds its body length, representing complete commitment to a singular purpose. Unable to preen with its beak, it must use its feet—teaching adaptation when standard methods fail. It feeds from below, approaching flowers hanging downward. As a trap-line feeder, it visits the same flowers in a specific sequence—a ritual path traveled daily. It can fly backwards and hover. The bird embodies focused dedication, showing that extreme specialization creates access to resources others cannot reach.
Guianan Cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola rupicola)
Males blaze in bright orange. The prominent half-moon crest fans forward over the bill, edged in darker brown like a corona around the sun. The wings contrast dramatically—black, orange, and white in geometric patterns. Long, delicate silky plumes cascade from the lower back. The tail shows orange tipped with black. Females dress in dark brownish-gray, smoky as mountain mist—perfect camouflage representing the unseen power that guards new life.
Up to 50 males gather in communal leks, creating a brotherhood of display. Each male clears and maintains his own circular court, keeping it pristine as sacred ground. They engage in vigorous displays—wing-flapping, head-bobbing, bouncing, bowing—yet remain within their territories, respecting boundaries while competing. Males perform bugle-like crowing calls that echo through valleys. Females tap males from behind to signal acceptance—a gesture of vulnerability and invitation. The species builds nests on rocks and cliffs, grounding their lives on solid foundations.
Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros)
The plumage announces itself in bold contrasts: pitch black body against pure white accents. The legs glow white, as does the vent. The long tail spreads white crossed by a single black band. Most extraordinary is the huge orange and red bill topped by a golden-yellow casque curved upward. This casque gains its vibrant color from preen oil deliberately rubbed on from the gland above the tail—the bird literally paints itself daily. Males have red eyes ringed in black; females have white eyes ringed in red.
The female demonstrates ultimate trust and sacrifice: she seals herself completely inside a tree cavity with her eggs, plastering the entrance closed with her own droppings. She remains entombed for nearly two months, absolutely dependent on the male to bring all food through a small opening. Both birds have loud, honking calls amplified by their hollow casques—their voices carry up to three miles through dense forest. They primarily eat figs and serve as vital seed dispersers. The species represents deep partnership, sacrifice, amplified voice, and service to the ecosystem.
Satyr Tragopan (Tragopan satyra)
Males display the deepest crimson red of all tragopans, covering breast, neck, and belly like living flame. This red canvas is covered with white ocelli edged in black—countless watching eyes across the body. Blue, black, and white spots and freckles scatter across the plumage like stars. The back appears dark brown. During breeding, males grow blue fleshy "horns" that stand erect and can be inflated at will. A blue and crimson-bordered wattle extends from the throat. Females wear plain brown barred with thin white streaks—dressed for invisibility while males dress for revelation.
Males demonstrate patient, strategic courtship: they hide behind rocks with horns inflated, waiting for females to pass by. When the moment arrives, they perform an explosive reveal— springing out with full ornamental display, stretching to maximum height to show every embellishment. They make nasal wailing calls that reverberate through mountain valleys. Each morning at dawn they emerge to waterfalls to quench their thirst—a daily pilgrimage to water. They migrate seasonally up and down mountain slopes, showing adaptability to changing conditions.
Gray-crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum)
The body wears predominantly pearly gray plumage. The wings transform this subtle base into spectacle—mostly white with patches ranging from dark gray to dark red to golden yellow. Most striking is the crown: stiff golden feathers spray upward and outward from the head like a radiant halo—each individual feather tipped with black. The sides of the face show pure white, and beneath the chin hangs a bright red inflatable throat pouch. The long hind toe allows tree-roosting, an ancient trait preserved when others lost it.
These cranes are famous dancers: they bow deeply, jump high into the air, flutter their wings, and run with wings spread. They perform these elaborate dances not just for courtship but at any time of year—for bonding, relieving tension, expressing joy, and teaching the young. When one bird starts dancing, the entire flock joins in—spontaneous collective celebration. They stomp their feet as they walk, deliberately flushing insects from grass—turning every step into provision. Unique among most cranes, they roost in trees at night, maintaining connection to both earth and sky. They time their breeding with the rains, demonstrating attunement to natural cycles.
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Ernst Bloch (1885-1977) was a German Marxist philosopher whose work centers on the concept of anticipatory consciousness (Vor-Schein or "anticipatory illumination") - a radical reimagining of how hope and utopian thinking function in human experience.
The "Not-Yet"
Bloch argued that reality itself is fundamentally incomplete and oriented toward the future. He distinguished between the "No-Longer-Conscious" (what we've forgotten) and the "Not-Yet-Conscious" (latent possibilities pressing toward realization). This isn't wishful thinking - it's an ontological claim that the future is already partially present in the world as tendency and potential.
Daydreaming as Philosophy
Unlike Freud's focus on night dreams and the past, Bloch elevated daydreams - those forward-looking fantasies we have while awake. He saw them as humanity's way of rehearsing possible futures, a kind of cognitive and emotional laboratory where we experiment with what could be. Anticipatory consciousness is this capacity to imagine and reach toward what doesn't yet exist.
Concrete Utopia vs. Abstract Utopia
Bloch distinguished between empty fantasies (abstract utopias) and "concrete utopias" - visions grounded in real tendencies within the present moment. Anticipatory consciousness works with the raw materials of the actual world, identifying seeds of transformation already germinating.
The Principle of Hope
His magnum opus, Das Prinzip Hoffnung (1954-59), is a three-volume exploration of how hope manifests across human culture - in fairy tales, architecture, music, medicine, technology, and political movements. He traced anticipatory consciousness through everything from children's stories to revolutionary politics, arguing that human beings are fundamentally "not-yet-become" creatures, always reaching beyond ourselves.
Titus Burckhardt (1908-1984) was a Swiss traditionalist philosopher whose work on alchemy reveals it as a sacred science operating simultaneously on cosmological, material, and spiritual planes. His central principle - ars perficit naturam (art perfects what nature leaves incomplete) - reframes the relationship between human action and natural processes as collaborative rather than extractive or passive.
Nature's Incompleteness
Burckhardt argues that nature continuously strives toward perfection but operates under limitations of time, circumstance, and manifestation. This isn't a deficiency but an inherent characteristic - the universe is in process, actively becoming. The alchemist doesn't violate or dominate nature but assists and accelerates what nature is already attempting to do, acting as a conscious agent within cosmic transformation. Lead would eventually become gold through geological processes over millennia; the alchemical work creates conditions for this natural tendency to manifest more rapidly.
The Intermediary Position of Humanity
Humans occupy a unique cosmological position - neither purely spiritual nor merely material, but capable of conscious participation in the cosmos perfecting itself. We're not separate observers imposing arbitrary will on passive matter, but perceivers who can discern latent possibilities within materials and bring them to fuller expression. The wood "wants" to become a beautiful bowl; the stone "wants" to become a cathedral; the thread "wants" to become intricate embroidery. The artisan's role is to recognize and actualize these inherent possibilities.
Outer Work, Inner Work
The same principle that applies to metallurgy applies to the human soul. Just as raw ore contains the potential for refined gold, human beings exist in immature states but contain seeds of spiritual perfection. The spiritual path isn't about becoming something foreign to your nature - it's about actualizing what you already potentially are. The "art" of spiritual development involves creating proper conditions (discipline, practice, ritual) for your inherent divine nature to manifest. Teacher and student mirror alchemist and metal - recognizing potential and providing the "heat" and "catalysts" that allow transformation.
Supplementive Research
Tovaangar Plants: The Tongva Names of Native Plants
Events
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