I first started making these back in art school..They're based on an ancient Bizen piece I saw in a magazine in the Bill Robertson Library - a six-sided slab piece with hand-cut designs, attached to a slab base with a wheel-thrown pagoda-style roof on top. Here's one of mine, in red:
Some of the geometric patterns were taken from a broadcast on China TV (like the one above) and others were based on swallows flying over foxgloves in the garden - something we see a lot of out here in in spring. Here's a photo of foxgloves from a summer or so ago, and the unglazed lantern beside it:
