a new toy

Last week I decided to order a Buddha Board and it arrived today...

If you aren't familiar with the Buddha Board, it's a ceramic board that you can do Sumi brush work on with water. There is no ink involved and when it dries it disappears. Perfect for practicing! I have often used newspaper or craft paper for practicing but this is so much better and not messy so you can use it anywhere.
I have never been great at brush work on pots, mostly due to that hesitation of "this is a one shot deal to get it right". I am hoping with practice, I can lose that hesitation on my pots and my strokes will have a looser look.
The first time I played with one of these was at a small Zen shop in Frederick, Md and my friends had to drag me out of the shop because it had me hooked. Jeff has a nice "how to" sumi brush work book that I am going to revisit and I found some youtube videos as well. The picture above was my first attempt at bamboo after watching a video.
Now I have to drag myself away from my new toy and finish up some glazing. We have to get the gas kiln loaded and fired this week, someone is waiting a an order for two vessel sinks...
VACATION IS OVER!