We are so lucky to have many birds living in the woods at the bottom of our garden (including some very noisy woodpeckers, who are some of my favourites).  At the moment they are happily feeding their beaky faces with the fruits of a very hot summer.  But, for once, I’m ahead of the game and ready for winter with an adorable little bird feeder that I made at The Clay House at Cedar Farm a few weeks ago.

This was another new challenge for me, as whereas previous projects have been made from slabs of clay, this was made from balls pinched into shape.

It’s not terribly easy as the natural inclination of the clay is to do it’s own thing and completely ignore everything you’re asking it to do.  And then it just laughs at you and collapses in on itself!

But a bit of perseverance (and the odd Anglo Saxon expletive under my breath) and I had two different sized bowls ready to join together to make my acorn shape.

The large hole above was cut out with a knife…the smaller one made with a piece of wooden dowling.  The decoration to the “hat” of the acorn was also made with a knife.  It started off very neatly and quite precise, and rapidly descended into boredom and random stabbing!

Which kinda worked in the end!

Coats of glazy stuff were applied.  One matt, so the birds don’t slip on it, one shiny and pretty.

A bit of baking in the kiln, and voila!

Now all I need is for my resident handyman to hang it for me and we’re ready for the winter.  Just not yet, thank you very much.  I’m enjoying the sun too much.