Why is it...

that when I decide on a once a week blog, I suddenly get hit by things to say?
Lucy Rae ( who I never knew whether rhymed with sigh or say).  I'd forgotten all about her:

And then one thing leads to another: 

 I love the way these from the Japanes exhibition catalogue have names - as well as the way you can feel them on your bottom lip even in the pictures, especially Omokage

and another

Jim made this when he was at Goldsmith's trying to get a low fire red glaze I think

and another
I began to wonder how long it was since I updated my pages and found I hadn't added an etching that I wanted to tell the story of.
I went to the Italian renaissance drawing exhibition with Tracey and was struck by the expression of the women - from the one on the cover:

through those I recognised the names of:
Leonardo da Vinci

Michael Angelo

Raphael

to the one I based my etching on:

I though it was a look of submission but someone said maybe not. maybe it was someone hiding their thoughts  - that's why the veiled head and someone else that it was a common pose - so many did it and I wondered
why is it?
and the drawing of it and the model and the artist and the studio all sort of took shape in my head - which is where the words came from.

They might look a bit scruffy but it took a lot of thought to work out how to do it. 
Since caligraphy is not a skill, I

1. found a font I liked and that looked in keeping
2. Typed out the poem
3. prt sc'd it
4. opened it in Paint
5. flipped it horizontally
6. printed it
7. copied it backwards onto the plate as neatly as I could.