Chickens and a firing at last!

Our chickens are growing and are such a hit we have to make miniatures so this is the little flock sitting on the table. Sadly a few have hit the tiles and not survived. 'More clay' is the afternoon's catch phrase and these little bits of nothing are easy to make and not as breakable as the 'dines'.

Just a couple of things from this small kiln load - managed to unload and then head to the shops and had a few sales - paid for gas - so it was worth it. Tourist season is upon us but they are reluctant buyers as they have to traverse rough roads and worry about breakages and space - a premium when you come to these out of the way places.

I loved these low bowls. I have to think about what I sit on the bottom shelves as they never get the heatwork like the rest of the kiln so I usually use my Derek Smith glazes and throw a few extras to experiment. I will do a few more like this I think.

This was one of the favourite beakers (yunomi's - now I read a blog where a potter said he wasn't Japanese so didn't feel he had the right to call them this - so I think I will stick to calling them beakers as well!). I did intend to match a lot of the beakers from the last firing with these pressed plates but of course time was short I decided I just couldn't stand the time and effort thinking about glazing but this result proves that you should sometimes stick to what you originally planned. The pressed plates all ended up with bauxite and shino but they beautiful too. I will make more pressed plates now as I decided not to take the beakers down to sell because I think they deserve the accompanying plate. Now I need time to play in clay............