We’re well and truly into 2023 now and it’s shaping up to be another exciting year at Hannah Turner! There will be three new handmade ceramics collections, can you guess which wildlife will be represented? Here are some clues:

• The first is a British favourite who’s shy and has a prickly personality
• The second is the largest land mammal, found in Africa and India
• The third is often maligned, but its reintroduction to Yellowstone transformed the park

Give yourself full marks if you guessed hedgehog, elephant and wolf!

So far, I have mainly been working on hedgehogs and elephants. I’ve been busy in my workshop modelling several new designs, creating moulds to cast samples and then work on the surface artwork. After making the clay models, I then take a cast and create wax models from the moulds to send to our suppliers in Sri Lanka. After this, I cast a few to try out underglaze colours and ways of decorating, as well as working on the printed transfer designs for the finer details that go on after the glaze firing. 

For the elephant collection, I have made a money box that also can double as a planter, meaning there is only one mould to make, along with salt and pepper shakers and an egg cup. These are already some of my most popular products featuring other animals, such as the tiger money box and salt and pepper shakers, lion money box, and monkey or orangutan egg cups.

In the Hedgehog collection I have created a money box/planter, salt and pepper shakers, an egg cup and a trinket dish. These tie in nicely with British-themed wildlife already in our ceramics lines, such as the red squirrel. In the wolf collection I already have an egg cup in the final stages of production and ready to ship. It also fits into the British wildlife theme, as even though they aren’t part of our ecosystem yet, as I believe wolves should be reintroduced in the UK to aid habitat restoration.

I aim to add salt and pepper shakers, a money box and a planter to the wolf collection soon. I have just started on them and am hoping I will get time to finish them before I go to Sri Lanka in March for my first pottery visit since 2019! Read more about this in future blogs. The Salt and Pepper sample is finished, see below!

Favourites returning soon

I’m also pleased to confirm that some of our most popular products are returning soon!

We had a very busy run-up to Christmas, and as a small business you need a crystal ball to accurately predict how much stock you need! This means that a few firm favourites from our Barklife ceramic tableware range such as the dog spoons, salt and pepper shakers and butter dish will shortly be available again in our online store.

If there is anything else you spot out of stock that you really want, please sign up on that specific product page and we’ll let you know as soon as you can buy it again.