Sketching to scratching - sgraffito jars

Here are some examples of how I combined my doodle sketching with carving onto my wheel-thrown pottery.
These jars were thrown on the wheel as a closed form, then the lid was cut and shaped to fit.
I coated each form with black underglaze and carved overlapping lines over the entire form before firing it.
After a bisque firing, the exterior is coated in cone 6 glazes and re-fired in the electric kiln.
Below are some details on my process.

I use cone 6 stoneware, pottery wheel, underglazes, carving tools, and electric kiln. Here's my summer studio. I move my work area into the garage so I can have some fresh air and sun. It's much nicer than being in the basement!
On my table, there is a pot coated in black underglaze ready for carving.

The line-work came from a doodle technique I found online called "noodles". Basically you overlap curved lines repeatedly until it creates a jumbled pile of noodles. I did these often when I wanted to draw but wasn't sure what to make. Here is a page of noodles from my sketchbook.

Eventually this pattern making found its way onto the surface of my pottery by carving into leather-hard clay, through a layer of underglaze. This carving technique is called sgraffito, which means "to scratch". These photos show one of the jars during the sgraffito carving, before it was fired. In the first photo, you can see how I begin the "noodle" sketch process, making sure to alternate the lines so they will always go over and under each other.

These jars are quite small, and fit in the palm of my hand. I used translucent glazes on the outside to accent the carving and black underglaze, and opaque glaze on the inside for contrast. Thanks for checking out my work!