Finished Rodent Pinch Pots

I'll get back to making woodcuts soon enough, though lately I've been really focused on the ceramics. Here's the finished results of those rodent pots I posted about last month.

Pig, Hawk, Kiwi, Frog

I've occasionally posted my ceramics on this blog (see dino pots and bird drawings on ceramics) and this is one of those days. Since there's no point in denying that clay has become a second medium for me, I had considered starting a second art blog. Perhaps something that mirrors this one like "Comments on Clay". But then I thought that's dumb. This is my art blog. If I branch out to beyond woodcuts (as I have with posts about monotypes, stone reliefs, and Sketchbook Sunday) then I branch out. "Words On Woodcuts" isn't just a description of the blog. It's also part of my brand as an artist, I suppose.

I recently finished four new pinch pots with drawings on them. I'm told they relate well to my prints, and I think that's true. Certainly in process. Both ceramics and woodcuts involve a certain amount of uncertainty that opens up possibilities for unique expression and "happy accidents" so-to-speak, as they both involve a multi-step process where outcomes are never completely certain. I go into projects with a general outline of an idea, but allow my intuition and the materials themselves to guide the journey to a final outcome that marries expectation with discovery.

Sketchbook Sunday: Frog, Rodents, and Flowers on Pinch Pots

I didn't draw in any sketchpads this week, but I did draw directly on leather hard clay pinch pots I made.

Finished Dino-pots

Anyone remember the dino-pots I started to make back in June? I finished them!

Sketchbook Sunday: Bird Drawings on Pinch Pots

I have not been working in my sketchbook at all lately. But I have been drawing! Mostly on pinch pot ceramic pieces I make. Ceramics is a newer medium for me that I've been at for just over 3 years. Most of what I create is variations on pinch pots that I let get leather hard and then draw into. (It's not sgraffito because I don't cover the piece with slip first. I just draw into the bare surface and fill the lines with glaze after it's been bisque fired.) The drawings are done spontaneously; I decide what to draw on a pot after I've already formed it) and the lines drawn are the lines that stay. I don't smooth over "mistakes" or try to "fix" anything I don't like.

I thought to include this activity in a Sunday Sketchbook post because this process is mainly about the relationship between hand-shaping a piece of clay and intuitive free drawing. Also, most of the subjects I've drawn are animals I have been sketching over the past several months.

These are images of 2 pieces: a pinch pot creamer and mug with bird drawings.