Since last week I have felt my pace of progress slow and my motivation ebb with it. I know enough to know that this is all normal, but you have to stretch yourself a bit to get rid of it. Bored of moon jars? Try a new shape. Although I still don't sit down and "design" enough, I do know it often holds the key to a fallow patch. So I sat down and doodled and then got the wheel going and produced these three vessels. I like them (though the one on the left is wrong and will be used as a test piece in the fire). Smoke firing these is going to be interesting. The smoke fire burns from the top down, so the neck will heat up and cool first. Will this mean breakages??? I have no idea. Sometimes you just have to try. It might be a failure. It might be amazing. Somehow you have to keep plugging away at these questions in the hope you will be rewarded with something etheral and magical at the end. It might be one of these pieces or not. What I must not lose sight of is all the incremental progress in between. In the long term, its the quiet and steady accumulation of knowledge and skills that will steady the boat.