Taking a different tack

Preparation for Sunday's "textiles into ceramics" class - on the right, a stamp for printing, just string wrapped around a block, but I like the "eye" design and the possibilities of the lines meeting up when it's printed in a grid. The shape is one that forms easily when winding yarn into a ball.

On the left, rubbings of the stitch samples to give an idea of what might happen if clay is rolled over them. If the string isn't removed from the back, it will show up - which I don't really want, or didn't think I did until I saw the possibility of loose flowing loopy marks instead of rigid straight lines. At the bottom of the strip, the string has been cut for each stitch and the ends criss-cross underneath; with a bit more thought this could be effective. At centre left, the rubbing shows the hand-couched X's with string cut away at the back. It's quicker to couch by machine, and feels more secure. I'll try them out and if they hold promise, might stitch a larger piece ... and see what happens then ...

The inspiration for the couched string is to find a way to make "written marks" - like these in the work of Elisabeth (Brillet) Raphael -

"Psaume" consists of porcelain tiles with embossed text

 I'm also very attracted to the tablet covered ... in ceramic presumably, though it looks like it might be wrapped in lead -

This evokes something I heard at a talk many years ago in the British Museum given by Irving Finkel, who is probably the world authority on cuneiform. He said that a law would be written on a clay tablet - and then encased in more clay and the law written again on the outside. Then if the authenticity of the law was questioned, the tablet could be broken open and the inner one examined - it would hold the true law.