Wednesday I finished off the remaining few pounds of clay in hopes of creating a few more items to print on. Another larger vase, a few potential mugs of various sizes and a small cup. After cleanup, I went through my print drawers searching for potential images. I ran across some that were created 7 years ago using bluegill fish caught at my friends pond. See here for the link back in time. Gyotaku is the art of inking fish, then pressing paper over the body to achieve a print. Not an easy thing to do! I did save a few sheets created that day and started thinking this might make for an interesting image on ceramics. (it always pays to save those goofy things cause ya never know when they might come in handy!) So, I’ll be giving it a try! The camas flowers are still going to be tested, but the fish are more exciting right now. No additional fish were harmed in the creation of the new images. We did fatally harm several when we created the original prints.
I’ve made a few copies and will be playing with altering the images a bit before running a Xerox. Fortunately, it will still be a few more days before the clay is ready for trimming and application of the images.
*For those who don’t follow along, I’ll be creating lithographs and applying them to clay forms.
Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog 
Printing dead fish. That made me splutter over my morning coffee. Is there nothing you won’t do to dead wild life😉. I love the prints though they look amazing! It’s amazing what you find in the back of the cupboard. Karen
We have a large print of an octopus from a Hawaiian artist and I used to know another gyotaku artist at the coast (he was the aquarium director at the marine science center and had plenty of access to dead specimens). The nice thing about dead or stuffed critters is that they don’t move! Most of the early naturalists (like Audubon) killed birds/mammals before drawing and painting their subjects. Stuffing was also popular. I only take what the pets bring in. The fish were sacrificed for the project.