Demonstration – Interactive Live-drawing/carving on narrative pots – York Ceramic Fair 2025

Freehand-carving on greenware

Leather dry greenware to carve

Getting conversational inspiration from my audience

The process of inlay

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/659561_4ef70fdcb32c4b1e8e6b551892e9e6d7/480p/mp4/file.mp4

'Interactive carving' on greenware

In this demonstration of YCF 2025, I shared my carving and inlaying techniques when making my illustrated narrative ceramics. The process involved carving straight onto greenware, using the audience's interaction as my inspiration and starting point. The techniques being demonstrated are inspired by Chinese Dingware, Cizhouware, Korean and Japanese incision decorations.

With a background in Fine Art and illustration, my ceramics specialise in combining 2D illustrations with 3D slab-built and thrown stoneware vessels. The demonstration engaged the audience in the process of story making on a vessel (pre-made greenware) by providing random words, which I took as an inspiration for carving a narrative onto the vessel in front of the audience. It showed how I used a single starting point to create surreal and fantastical narratives through a stream of consciousness. I also demonstrated how I inlays and colours her works at the bisque stage, using decorative slips and underglazes prior to the final firing.

Photo©Ding Wei & Yang Yixue