Materials: clay

Technique: cut-paper lettering design, pottery

Size: each 30 cm diameter

Description: The words written on both of these bowls are in Latin. Scribendi cacoethes translates in English as ‘the incurable itch to write’. I chose these words to express a calligrapher’s dedication and commitment to his art. 

On one bowl the letters have been painted on to the bisque-fired terracotta clay using black glaze. The words on the other bowl are recessed, so that the roughened background becomes more prominent, forming an interesting pattern in its own right.

Featured in the “Designing with Letters” public lecture and slide presentation at the State Library of Queensland in 1993, and in the “Designing with Letters” presentation at the Brisbane Art & Craft Fair in 1998.

Displayed in Indooroopilly Library in 2001 and Holland Park Library in 2002.