I had one last session on wet clay on Thursday and made the last three plates. I won’t have time to make any more and have them dry and fire them before the kiln goes next Friday. The school is packed up then anyway. Shirley rolled out clay for me and I stayed behind until six to finish the last three sprigged plates. There will be some glazing to do next week and I still have to fire the kiln a couple of times to get everything done.

I made the last plates with a range of sprigs and the wood cuts. On the very last plate I used the art room key to make an impression which looked so sad and felt so sad to do I almost cried.

There will be more plates in other places, no doubt. Having built up this level of expertise in ceramics it seems silly not to carry on. Looking through the books there are so many ideas and drawings that haven’t made it onto plates there are still lots more to do. But really the 100 plates about being a middle school art teacher is over. We have managed to break the century mark with a few extra, I think.