Cracking Time this Easter!

New Square shaped jug that went "Ting"

We have had a great time this Easter attending craft shows & meeting customers & fellow crafters. But we did have a big problem we have never experienced before.
Before attending the shows we put our new stall up in the house & put all the ceramics on display so we knew where to put everything when we have to set up in a hurry. While the stall was in the house I heard "Tinging" noises. Later to my horror I disscovered what it was. Small hairline cracks had appeared on the glaze on some of our ceramics, I had always wanted crackle glaze but not like this. For the next few days we kepted hearing "Ting" every now & then. I had to search through the pots to find the culprits, most of my new fairy jugs & some of the new square shaped jugs we had just made were affected . We tryed to refire them, but they just "Tinged" again.  I had alot of "seconds" on our stall at Hyde End.
 We are hoping it has happened because we fired the greenware too low & not because the glaze does not like the homemade slip Adrian has made in his new Blunger.
We came home from Hyde End show only to discover our hen Sally had hatched a chick, but then had left the other eggs  (which were due to hatch a few days later), to go cold. Then her one & only chick had gone missing so she sat back on the eggs but it was too late. We cracked a few open & there were dead chicks inside. Not such a nice Easter present to come home too.

Fairies for my Mam

A change is as good as a rest, I tend to over work so when I cannot face painting another flower I need a new challenge. So I set about painting some Fairies. My mam is very ill in hospital & she always loved fairies so they always remind me of her. She wrote many fairy stories when I was young which she did eventually get made into a small booklet especially for all her many grandchildren. My favourite fairy charactor was "Fairy Wobble" she got knocked out of a flower by a bad tempered boy when she was a baby fairy so she walked with a wobble. She spent her life getting her own back on the little boy by pulling his hair & pinching him & of course he did not know what was happening. When I was little my Mam told me that story over & over again & I still love it.

 I now have two daughters of my own but I am afraid I do not have my mam's story telling skills, so I guess I will have to stick to painting them instead.

I got my daughters to pose for me I have taken lots of photos so I can turn them into fairy's the next time I need a challenge which knowing me won't be long.