Dialogue by Mark:

For the Imagination Station Master's Gallery today, our bright birdwatcher of art history, Kim at KidsArt, brings us a ceramic treasure from England. This noisy nest is titled "Hen and Chicks Turreen" and was made out of porcelain clay in Chelsea, England, over than 200 years ago.

A turreen is a big, covered bowl made for soups or stew. The food would be dished up out in the kitchen, then brought to the dinner table with the cover on top to keep it warm. Imagine walking to the table with this fat mother hen in your hands. You'd grab hold of the little chick on her back to lift off the cover...mmmm. Must be chicken noodle soup inside!

Decorated vases and pots like this one have been made for thousands and thousands of years, ever since primitive civilizations discovered that wet crumbly clay becomes hard and waterproof when it's baked in a hot fire. Clay was one of the first art materials. You can dig up natural clay almost anywhere in the world, dry it out, sift it and clean out any lumps or sticks or pebbles, then get it wet again and shape whatever you want.

This Hen and Chicks Turreen was made out of porcelain, a special hard, white clay. The porcelain was mixed with lots of water to make a runny mud. There would have been two molds for the Hen...one for the body and another for the lid. The runny porcelain was poured into the molds and began to dry at the edges. When a wall formed, the rest of the runny mud was dumped out, leaving a hollow pot.

Clay vases and pots are usually baked twice in a hot oven called a kiln. First the plain clay form is baked to make it hard. Then special pottery paints called glazes are painted on, and the pot is baked again to melt the glazes and make them hard. The artist who decorated the Hen and Chicks Turreen used white and brown for the hen, red for her face, and yellow glaze for the chicks. Thanks to the Cleveland Museum of Art for this great Master's Gallery piece.