Clay play day...

And what a hoot we had!  :-))

So, today was our clay play day with my dear friend and artist/sculptor Fiona.  She's home visiting her parents Margaret and David and heads back to NZ in just over a week (boo hoo) and has been running ceramics workshops for family and friends from her mum's dining room.  Today it was our turn :-))

We arrived at her parents' house just after 1pm to be met with delicious bowls of Margaret's homemade lentil soup, followed by freshly baked rolls with a selection of fillings.  I had taken some of my Empire biscuits to have with coffee but it was decided to have them after our clay play, as Margaret also had delicious, gooey chocolate cake!  She totally spoiled us!  (and if that wasn't enough, she'd also bought us a beautiful box of Fondant Fancies from Betty's in Yorkshire.  Pic of two of them in my blip :-)

It was so lovely to see Fiona's Dad too.  David is the well known and much loved illustrator of The Beano's greatest characters.  Now aged 89 he still produces comic strips for DC Thomson and very kindly gave me two Beano's for Alan having signed the strips he had illustrated.  One of my fondest childhood memories of staying at Fiona's during school holidays is being allowed into her dad's studio to watch him work.  I was in complete awe of him and astounded that you could get paid to draw!  

After lunch, we got positioned at the dining room table where Fiona had all the clay and tools required laid out for us.  We then spent a fantastic few hours following her lead in trying to create some chickens, some little bowls and little dogs (the dogs were created using a mould. Much easier than winging it! :-))

Much to David's surprise he really enjoyed himself.  He says anything arty is completely alien to him but his chicken is better than mine (my chicken looks like the love-child of a T-Rex and a Clanger! (without the ears! :-))  It's not sour grapes aye it is but I did point out that his success may be partly due to the fact he was sitting next to Fiona who used his chook to demonstrate technique more than once ;-))

Whilst I was trying to get my lump of clay to resemble a chicken, I had within my line of sight a table full of Fiona's latest creations that have had their first firing and are now waiting to be painted.  They are exquisite!  I looked down at the lump of clay in my hands and not for the first time shook my head in wonder at how she manages to produce such amazing works of art from this raw material! 

We now have our little creations home with us and some paint and once they're fully dry we can paint them.  David will then drop them off at her mum's on Tuesday and Fiona will get them fired.  She will then glaze them for us and fire them again and we can collect them.  

Unfortunately by the time we're able to get back for them, Fiona will be back in New Zealand, so we said our sad farewells today.  She's hoping to get home again next year so hopefully won't be too long till we can get together again. 

In the meantime I will have my little ceramic chook to remind me of her (assuming that it doesn't explode in the kiln!)