Bells and Angels

My Etsy Mud Team friend, Barbara Dunshee, makes beautiful work and she also teaches ceramics. She recently posted some videos on her blog showing how to make her porcelain bells. I thought I might want to try making them at some point but was not in any hurry to start experimenting with new items right when I'm in the midsts of getting ready for the Fall shows. But I was making some trays and found myself with small slabs of stoneware at hand, so I took the first steps in making Barbara's bells: I cut a circle of clay and then I divided it in half diagonally to make two bells... The pottery fairies must have been twirling around my studio because I didn't end up making bells. This is what happened instead:

A parade of tiny little angels! I don't know if they'll survive the firing... but they're mighty cute!