The Thoughtful Little Robin -

Our Thoughtful Little Robin is flying around this festive season to share ways on how to have a more conscious Christmas.

Follow us through our Derbyshire factory to see how each Robin has been carefully crafted and glazed just in time for Christmas.

To start. liquid clay slip is slowly poured into the centre of a stack of dry plaster moulds. It takes around six hours for the moulds to take the water out of the slip leaving solid clay robins inside.

The moulds are opened one by one to reveal five robins in each. Using 40 moulds we can cast 200 at once!

Once the robins have dried overnight at a little over room temperature they are sponged again to remove the clay seam left where the two halves of the mould join.

The robins are stacked on refractory batts to go through the 900ºc, 18 hour kiln firing which sees them turn into hard porous biscuit.

Each robin is then individually hand sprayed with glaze. Our glazing experts know that glaze weight, fluidity and application thickness are vital to creating a good finished piece.

At this stage, the colour of the glazed robin doesn’t always match the final colour.

The backs of the robins are then sponged to ensure they are clean from excess glaze. Any glaze left on will act as glue between the robin and the kiln batt when they go through.

Each glazed robin goes through a 1200ºc, 16 hour final kiln firing. The heating and cooling cycle of this firing sees the glaze melt and solidify resulting in a fully vitreous robin.

As the robins come out of the kiln, the final colour and texture can be seen. The robins are visually inspected ready to receive a stamp, string and be boxed.