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Our Thoughtful Little Robin is flying around this festive season to share ways on how to have a more conscious Christmas. Read his poem below to learn more about his journey to Denby:
THE THOUGHTFUL LITTLE ROBIN
The Thoughtful Little Robin flew North, South, East and West
Looking for a lovely place to make his Christmas nest
He wanted somewhere warm and kind to pause his winter roam
And chanced upon our pottery and chose Denby as his home
He wants us all to take the time to choose carefully this season
Protecting all we should hold dear is clearly his big reason
Enjoy the season; love, laugh, enjoy, but take time out to think
About little things we all can do to make our usage shrink
So The Thoughtful Little Robin is helping Denby spread the word
To make more conscious choices, what a clever little bird
Look out for Robin if he comes a-knocking at your door
Or check out all this lovely stuff if you want to find out more…
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 center of a stack of dry plaster molds. It takes around six hours for the molds to take the water out of the slip leaving solid clay robins inside.
The molds are opened one by one to reveal five robins in each. Fun fact: We can make up to 200 at once since each mold holds a total of 40 robins.
Once the robins have dried overnight at a little over room temperature, they are sponged for second time to ensure we remove any excess clay left where the two halves of the mold join.
The robins are stacked on refractory batts to go through the kiln. The kiln used is set at 1652 degrees Fahrenheit and takes up to 18 hours for all the robins to dry.
Next, each robin is individually hand sprayed with glaze. Within this next step, our experts focus on three aspects of glazing: weight, fluidity and application thickness. These three components are vital to creating the best finish.
Note: During this stage, the color of the glazed robin doesn’t always match the final color.
This time the backs of the robins are sponged to ensure they are clean from excess glaze. It’s important to understand that any excess glaze left or left unseen will act as glue between the robin and the kiln batt when they go through. This can cause a hiccup during production.
Through another kiln we go! This time the kiln is set at 2192 degrees Fahrenheit for a 16 hour firing cycle. The heating and cooling cycle of this firing causes the glaze to melt and solidify resulting in a fully vitreous robin.
As the robins come out of the kiln, the final color and texture can be seen. Following, the robins are visually inspected and ready to receive a stamp, string and packaged away.
Click below to find out more about our Conscious Christmas.
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