more history

I have made a lot of houses...seems to be a part of my vocabulary. These were made around 1986. The houses were charcoal fired. Porcelain in the charcoal kiln has a remarkable surface. I would hold the houses in the kiln with wadding that is made with a portion of ball clay in the mix. The iron in the ball clay would cause the orange flashing.
The scale of these houses is about 2 inches tall. 
The lessons I learned with the houses is the slow evolution of ideas, in which form finds subtle resolution.
The evolution is not something I can specifically articulate. It is also a necessary part of the process.
They became the marker/benchmark for holding onto an idea and working with it for a long period of time, until the form evolves. The first houses I made were clumsy....these later examples were surprising in the subtle evolution of the idea and form.

So I return to the houses. Sort of cycling through ideas I have. I have made the houses in a variety of sizes.

These houses are about 12 inches tall.

Texture in clay is something I like working with. The tool with perforated holes in the cylinder comes from the inside of a VW tailpipe...I have found other forms that allow the same pattern.  This particular tool belongs
to a friend of mine. I have not been able to locate
one of these for myself.
I am always on the alert for objects to use for texture.
I either make stamps with clay, or locate objects that provide interesting images.

 These are all examples of stamps I use. The faces are small pins. The faces are only about 1 inch tall.
The small vase is a fish stamp I made from a toy carp.

Fish are favorite forms to include in my work. I have access to a wonderful koi pond. The pond had several very large fish. This Spring they were gone and replaced with a new generation of koi. I will watch and see how long it takes for the new population to grow. The previous batch had several fish that were over a foot in length.

 This is an image of a Netsuke I found on ebay. The gourd is an old version of a container for alcohol...so one wonders how much this fellow has ingested to image himself turned into a carp. Strange dreams.