Recent activity. Progressed the commission. Waiting to hear back from medal people – for ribbon and medallion samples, answers to technical questions and options for presentation boxes. Done a couple of brass pin mockups with different finishes, trialled engravings and reprinted templates with finer lines. Next steps send price proposal to RR and mock up a silver version (how will brass finish last over time?).

Have forged ahead with conic sections. Rimu now with Greg Morris. Will go back to commercial woodturners for the slicing.

Continuing with the pottery classes. Last few weeks have caught up on turning backlog and glazed. Glaze results back on Friday. Then I’ll be back into the bowls and ongoing battle to get the clay moving from the bottom to the top. Have found a great youtube channel with in depth and very easy to follow to tutorials from Florian Gadsby, and purchased a couple of books including Practical pottery: A complete guide to getting started in making beautiful and functional bowls, plates, vases and more on the wheel – Sus Borgbjerg & Susan Liebe.

Been doing lots of reading. Clay: a human history – Jennifer Lucy Allan, Think like an Artist – Will Gompertz, Currently Creation Stories – Anthony Aveni. Will do some separate notes on take-homes from those.

And digesting my conceptual ideas following discussions with Claude. Geometric/mathematical threads – Apollonius, conic sections, perspective; Material explorations/methodologies – clay, shadows, interplay between mediums and outputs where each feed the other, failed perfection (and v.v); Artists/References – Martin Poppelwell, Grayson Perry, Marion McGuire, Giotto; Cosmic/mythological – creation stories, planets, gods, orbits, empty focus/void; Jewellery connections – geometry, the hole.

Been ritualising studio practice too – for when I can get in there (a la Pink Room). Pre-preparing tasks, materials and tools, herbal tea, clay play, observational notes, low pressure making – repairs, commission steps, quick responses, scratching itches, and setting up for small windows of activity.