Napkin Rings and Wooden Printing Blocks

Today I decided to list these napkin rings in my Folksy shop. I designed them to match and complement my tableware range by using the same glazes and a very simple style. So far I've made this first set in white - and hopefully I shall be making more soon!

At first I toyed with the idea of throwing some napkin rings on the wheel: but that seemed much too fiddly. So I've made these by hand building them. I started by rolling out a slab of stoneware clay and cutting out equal sized rectangles. Then I curled these around themselves into a ring shape and fixed the ends by overlapping. They've all been glazed using my usual white gloss glaze both inside and out - this means that the napkin material slides nicely without snagging on bare stoneware. And inside I've also stamped each of the rings with my own pottery seal.

As you can see they have a very simple bird motif on all of them. This was made using a wooden printing block pressed into the clay while still soft. I have a selection of these wooden printing blocks which I bought back in October last year during a visit to London. They're textile printing blocks really, but I find they're perfect for making impressions in clay (and also for printing on paper of course: I've been using them to make pretty wrapping paper on birthday presents!) As soon as I saw them I knew I had to have them: they're such lovely things in themselves...