I've been carving. Not pumpkins yet, but clay luminaries. I had made a little bluebird luminary a few weeks ago and have received a couple orders for more. So yesterday I sat with the thrown forms and looked into the clay, waiting for an image to reveal itself. The shape of the pot inspires the image. A short, stout clay body can't very well hold a giraffe, right? The widest and shortest could carry a squirrel, though, and the rounded one a frog. The oval, a butterfly spreading her wings; and so on.
I have taken many photographs of small critters through the years. In the old days, the poor images were blurry and pathetic. The endless rolls of film that included inevitable shots of unrecognizable macros became food for amusement. I continued to push the limits of the cheap cameras I had. Finally was able to buy a good camera. This camera can handle my instinct for getting close up and personal with the world. Now I can actually capture the detail of the monarch's proboscis! I can peer into the little frog's face and detect a grin. These are the images I reference for my pots. Hopefully some of the joy I feel when looking at them is transferred onto the pots, and eventually to others.