Marko

I draw so much inspiration from nature too. I have a notebook, Marko, that I carry around everywhere. I jot down ideas and scribble sketches. I don't know where you live but I find if I go to the ocean I see dozens of things that I want to capture in pottery, from the stripes on a sedimentary rock to the texture of a starfish. Where do you find inspiration? Train stations, vineyards, factories, woods. Something will sing for you.

If I might intrude: potters are always looking at other potters work for inspiration and technique. As long as we are looking are not comparing our work to theirs. When we start comparing, self analyzing: then we become critical of our own work.

There are about 36 different methods of decoration for primitive pottery.. There are many decoration methods for modern pottery, and many ways cross over. Its easier if you have a notebook of things you'd like to make...then make them. Try making the same size as the example, form, and decoration techniques. If you keep a notebook, you'll never run out of ideas. Generally, I found if some potters sit down without an example to make, they pull this way and that way, then shape that...