Swirling Ideas

My oldest son has a penchant for patterns. I think I must too. I am drawn to carving patterns in pots. When I began making pots I threw with low fire clay and painted images on them using underglazes. That was my favorite part of the process. Then I began working with high fire clay and glazes (cone 10) and the form became the focus - as it needed to be. I look back at those early pots and can see so clearly what was missing (can you say 'door stop'?!?). Despite all the things I learned while taking classes, I missed the images that I created on the low fire pots, so I began to explore alternatives using high fire glazes. I eventually found something that I was drawn to - carving into the pots. I love the feel of the tool as it glides through the clay - the freedom of it. All of my patterns are created free-form. I don't like to be too precise as the imperfections of too much structure scream out at me if they aren't spot on. Today I had swirls swirling around in my brain. Here are some images of the pots that I trimmed up and carved. I'm working on a wedding pie plate - swirls weren't part of the request. I hope it's not a problem. Once I started, I couldn't stop. The uncarved plates looked so plain and a bit lonely amongst the other swirly pie plates and pots.