The Great Pottery Throwdown is so beautiful in every way. I want all of the finalists to win. Thank you Keith, Richard, Siobhan and Princess. And thank you Channel 4.

First attempt at making a cola pen.

I've been working with 1st year Creative Writing students at DMU, helping them to produce a compilation of their drabbles (100 word stories). The booklets have just arrived from the printer. Here's me opening the box. I'm really pleased with the way it's turned out.

I took this one 4 years ago at Light Up Leicester.

After the by-election, I'm seeing people talk in concerned voices about 'family voting'. Now, I like to go with members of my family to vote in elections. A collective celebration of this hard-won democracy. Does that count as 'family voting'? Or does my ethnicity make it not so worrying?

Eleven years ago.

An ironic linoprint block and test print.

For some reason, these lines by Bob Dylan have been recently playing in my mind: 'In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel To show that all's equal and that the courts are on the level And that the strings in the books ain't pulled and persuaded... (1/2)

I've heard several royal correspondents say words to the effect: 'I believe the Monarchy will be able to survive this.' But none have so far voiced the corrolary about the survival of their own jobs.

It's said that people sufficiently in tune with their own bodies are instinctively drawn to foods that contain the precise nutrition they need in each moment. Either chocolate is an enduring connucopia of nutritional goodness or I'm not sufficiently in tune. I prefer to believe the former.

Ink reflected on ink. I happened to notice this morning at breakfast the reflection of tubes of yellow and red printing ink on the surface of the black printing ink tube. The advantage of having a kitchen table art studio.

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 52; Yes, you are a proper writer if you also have a day job. Nearly all writers have day jobs.

I've been unwell for a few of days. Happily today is very much better than yesterday. But I've made nothing that I can share with you. Instead, I've dipped back into some old images. This is a charcoal sketch of a vase in the ceramics exhibition in Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

If I had a penny for every time I heard the phrase 'denied any wrongdoing', I could buy a replacement for the kitchen radio and all the little fragments of plastic and metal that once belonged to it.

We often hear people say 'We often hear people say this is unprecedented'. So there's a lot of precedent for that at least.

Now, THAT'S going to ge an interesting episode of 24 Hours in Police Custody...

The results from a morning of messing around with an extremely large gelplate and some extremely small pieces of cartridge paper. (I'm not selling ACEOs on ebay or etsy. I only mention ACEO because that's the size format I've been working in.) #ACEO #Abstract

I was making some marks this morning and the sun decided to join in.

Hybrid breakfast table-art studio.

Floor of the New Walk Museum next to the front entrance. My translation of the Latin may be criticised by some for its wild inaccuracy. But I believe 'Always Cheese' is more artistically valid than 'Always the Same'.

Spotted on my walk back from the museum today.

“The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” — James A. Baldwin

Really enjoyed the LSA exhibition at New Walk Museum.

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 554: When choosing a title for your novel, make sure it sounds like fiction. Jame's Runcie's terrific novel, THE DISCOVERY OF CHOCOLATE, and Marina Lewyzca's A BRIEF HISTORY OF TRACTORS IN UKRANIAN, were both repeatedly placed in the nonfiction section of bookshops.

Gloomy February light at breakfast this morning. My eye was caught by the red of an HB pencil. Yes I am incapable of tidiness.

It's only after living with a print for a while that I come to an objective view. I wasn't sure about this one for a fairly long time. But today I looked at it in passing and at last felt as if I had enough distance to see it clearly. I'm pleased with what I've made. #drypoint #intaglio #swan

Finding abstract compositions in nature. (Open the image up for the full composition.) This is a chestnut tree in Beacon Hill Country Park.

I've got good news and bad news. The good news is I've made a Pac-Man model out of ceramic...

I'm finding SaySomethingIn SO much better than the cursed Duolingo. No toxicity. Lots of encouragement. I'm finding myself thinking 'I've got a couple of minutes. Wonderful. I could practice my Welsh.' Rather than the evil owl experience.

It's offcut time again. A word suggested itself. And a colour. #linocut

Suggestion - when a royal correspondent is interviewed about the royal family, they should start with this statement of interest: "Without the royal family, I'd be out of a job."

The pleasure of making and materiality

I have far too many tasks that need to be accomplished today and not enough time to do them. Therefore, I will generate a new (more interesting) task that doesn't really need to be done and devote all my energy to that instead. If this seems to make sense to you, I embrace you sister/brother.

Another fabulous episode of Pottery Throwdown - the best thing on television. Thank you Channel 4 and everyone involved. #PotteryThrowdown #Channel4

From charcoal to vinyl to print. I'm still pondering the background. Perhaps to remove it. Perhaps to keep it.

I bought my first box of charcoal just before falling sick with Covid. It was one of the things that helped me through the years of recovery. This charcoal Imade myself. Weaker and more crumbly than shop bought. It provides the many accidents through which I slowly learn.

If anyone tells you they have a toxic relationship with an owl, you can be sure they're using Duolingo.

Final day of the People's Exhibition at New Walk Museum. I had a quick visit to enjoy it one more time and see which items had sold. Realised I hadn't taken the obligatory selfie with mine. So here it is.

I'm told AI is doing wonderful things in the field of medicine. I'm all for that. But the generative AI producing text and images just seems to make the world that bit worse, more bland, less reliable.

Making things in order to discover and to connect. #ACEO #Linocut #Ravens

Been feeling under the weather for a few days. But now the weather seems to be under and over all of us, I'm doing a run of ACEO sized relief prints. #ACEO #ravens #linocut

Excellent advice as usual...

Another wonderful episode of Pottery Throwdown. The best thing on television. Antidote to... well, the news. #PotteryThrowdown #Channel4

One of many. #limited-edition

I realised this morning that I haven't shown the reverse of my minature prints. So here is one selection. (And probably the reason I don't usually show this is the wild regularity of my hand writing...)

Duolingo seems to have become somewhat toxic since I last had it installed. Or is that just me?

More analogue, material joys. A new minature printing project.

Your daily mountain You come to the mountains to silence your desire / not dial it up / though the snow fall is powdered glitter / at minus fifteen / you are just ambulant static / and bruised lips

This is a sheet of A3 heavy cartridge paper disassembled into 19 trading card size pieces (2.5 by 3.5 inches). This leaves 4 cards of smaller size. And one even smaller remnant. Sorry about the imperial measurements. The trading card format seems to have come from baseball cards. #ACEO

The title of a book by Roger Penrose popped into my head this morning. The Emperor's New Mind. Can't think why.