Inspiration struck!

Well, as I said, my original plan for those vases was to slip inlay a Jane Austen character on each one, but I just wasn't feeling excited about that and I didn't know what to do with them. Then... inspiration struck!...

I looked at my little sketches of Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. How could I bring their characters to life? What was there about the sketches that said "Mr Darcy" or "Elizabeth Bennet"? Nothing really.

I thought about the story. Neither character really has anything about them individually that makes them easily recognisable, like Emma and her snobbish match making, and Marianne and her love for hill walking and her pining for Willoughby. Except...

...their love and hate for each other! Of course! The two need to be together to bring the story to life! And so on one vase I have them turned away from each other, and on the other vase I have them turned towards each other! I was so excited about this idea that I had to do it straight away! So I was up until about 6am!


My slip inlaying never seems to photograph very well, so I have no photo of the other vase and this one might not be very clear, but I hope they will come out well after firing.

I must say a big thank you to Scott and Kim for their advice on my last post. Although I won't be using low fire glazes on these pieces after all, the advice won't be wasted as I plan to try the idea on another piece. Thank you!