A group of Belgian people dropped by my studio this week to pick up some ceramic sculptures. I particularly liked this Fat Bird because of the small, star like white spots on her side, and I am actually sorry to see her go.
The white spots are caused by salt exploding during the smoke firing. The grey and black markings are painted by the smoke – the original colour of my clay is white.
I have used red Botz brush -on glaze for her eyes.

I daubed some red iron and manganese oxide on this Fat Bird, but the black markings appeared during the smoke firing. Again, she is made from white clay.

Even though this Fat Bird  is also smoke fired, the smoke has only left a gentle grey hue and the markings comes mainly from manganese, copper and iron oxide.