La petit bell

When I took my first ceramics class, when I was about ten, we made a lot of bells and whistles. Literally. Making a clay whistle was apparently a complicated and secret process shrouded in mystery. We would make the body of the whistle with a little spout and our teacher would then take it to another room to preform the magic of making sound. She refused to tell us how she did it, old family secret I supposed, passed from mother to daughter... I am now planning to enter this secret society of whistle makers (by googling it) and give it a try.

Bells, on the other hand, are easy. Here is one just out of the kiln: Her dress was made by stamping real pieces of lace on the clay. Only the dress and hair are glazed so her skin has a matte finish. Here she is all glazed up and waiting to be fired:

and here is what she looks like now:

and here is what she sounds like now:

And in case you are wondering what ever happened to the planter - it is alive and well and glazed but not fired yet. Because of its (frankly ridiculous) size it keeps loosing its spot in the queue but it now has an "urgent" sign on it and I have been told it will go into the kiln today. Fingers crossed and I will keep you posted

American Girl mag quiz

Illustrations for a Halloween quiz in the new American Girl issue