Inspiration is all around us. Wherever I look there are birds – birds that visit my bird-feeder or are on local lakes and birds that other potters have made. We all make them differently but there’s something about the elegant shapes of birds that needs to be interpreted in a three-dimensional way. Sure I may well make a drawing of an elegant Pileated Woodpecker that checked out our suet feeder the other day but it’s also fun to see how I can make a functional jugbird instantly recognizable as a particular bird. The colours or arrangements of signature bars or dots give the clues.

I wonder how I would design a Mallard Duck or whether the Varied Thrush would be too similar to others I’ve made?

Tomorrow I will post the real and the ceramic birds I saw in Puerto Vallarta in January. Such fun!

But for now I will just add a splended bird sculpture that appears on the back page of my latest Ceramic Review magazine from England. An upcoming show at the Ruthin Craft Centre Gallery will feature the work of artist and designer Norman Makinson 1921-2010. He was an art school instructor and produced ceramic sculpture for 50 years. I wish I had met him. Gloriously, unashamedly Folk Art this rooster (he’d certainly have called it a cockerel) is mid-century modern and outrageous.

For more information on this show and about Ruthin Craft Centre, Denbighshire go to        http://www.ruthincraftcentre.org.uk/

It looks like somewhere I must visit one day.