Creating a New Cat

Whilst the rudimentary shape of the cat may take only a few hours of modelling, to get to the finished product will take a number of weeks. An eye,for instance has to be carefully modelled to reflect the cat's mood and demeanour. We do not resort to bland, uniform glass eyes .

A plaster mould is made in sections encasing the final model. Into the finished mould is poured liquid clay or slip to make a cast or copy of the original model.

The cast is fettled, sponged, dried and biscuit fired to a temperature of 1000 centigrade before being glazed and decorated and fired up to 1250 centigrade in a glaze kiln. All these processes are managed by Brenda and Mike who have been with Moorside Design since the mid 1980s.

Ceramic Cats - why ceramics?. At high temperatures ceramics is the most difficult of mediums, volatile and unpredictable but when it works it produces the most magical of decorative effects. Over the years we have created high fired stoneware glazes with oxide mixtures painted on top of raw glazes that fuse together in the kiln during firing to produce the inimitable Moorside Cat