Vintage Porcelain Keys.........the survivors!

A few blog months ago I showed you these little porcelain keys cast from vintage keys in the making and all the difficulties I had keeping them in one piece, there were lots of failures in getting them out of the mould I used and then it was difficult to handle them as they seemed to crumble when I picked them up to dry out, infact the whole process was loose loose loose.
But some made it into the kiln to be fired and here they are............

As pictured in my shop inside the heart of an oak bookend.

I've hung some on ribbon but my intention is to make some jewellery from them some time.

Chickens and eggs and more chickens.................

Back in March 2011 I approached a local battery hen farmer and managed to talk him into letting me buy a few of his barn hens. I've been keeping hens now for about eight years and have been converted from the lovely large pure breed chickens to well,..... the scrawny, balding and anaemic varieties also known as the ex-battery hens. I bought three about four years ago and only have one left now and she has been a lovely little red hen and has laid lots of eggs for us over that time, but now she is pretty much in retirement and only lays a few eggs a year.
So here are the new hens straight from the barn and re-homed with me in March 2011......



And here is the OAP.






And again.

Our old Seven year old Light Sussex also an OAP now nesting in the hen house.

This is how they look now.
Two of the battery hens from March 2011 looking alot brighter and stronger and laying lovely eggs every day!

Black Clay...... Here are some of the things I've made from black clay......

Initially I was quite daunted by using a clay like this as it's a bit ruthless to work with, messy, leaving all surfaces,tools and cloths a dark red colour which seems harder to wash away than regular buff clays and then there is the texture of it, rather resembling the texture of cement! I found it quite difficult to use, sticking to the rolling pin if too wet,cracking if too dry it was a mess with not a lot to show for it really. Perseverance has however paid off with these little textured planters. With all its negatives this black clay is really quite good stuff, if used at the right consistency it takes a good texture, doesn't shrink much and has an attractive speckle and feel too it. I like it a lot! Will definitely be using it again.

Slab pots
Planted up with a succulent

Stone Planter

Hand formed using pinch method