I had been thinking about evolving my rounded shapes for a while - then I get back and these just pop up. I always find it is necessary to live alongside a new shape for a while - as long as it takes really. What you start out liking usually changes again in subtle ways. With these, I am currently favouring the shape back right - which is a more rounded form with a shorter neck. This will probably change. Eventually, I will settle on a version, but in the meantime, all that is necessary is to live with all possibilities, while remaining critical of each form. I am also interested to see how the buying pubic receive them compared to the short necked forms. So far, so good.

The one thing which will probably always stay is the rounded bases - give or take all the various changes which can be made to the size and angles. The reasons I am so wedded to this form are partly aesthetic and partly technical. I have always loved the rounded shape - something about its generosity and softness and connections to nature. On the practical side of things, the shape is strong, which it needs to be to withstand the smokefiring. It also receives the smoke patterns in a more varied and interesting way - creating swirls where a flat form would not. I have fired a flat piece to prove this. It was absolutely uniform - interesting like an ancient subway tile, but completely different to the intergallactic patterns that are created on the round forms. If you do like smoke firing - try some different shapes and you will see what I mean.