In 2014, I discovered a film on YouTube by a cinematographer called Dylan Winter; he has made several films of the Murmurations of starlings at Otmoor in Oxfordshire. Around that time, I was asked to join a committee to put together an art exhibition to raise money for a local charity, the Carroll Centre, in Stanmore, Winchester. I was asked to contribute some of my pottery to the show, but I realised that a couple of pots wouldn’t raise much, and that I needed a more substantial idea. So I decided to submit a Murmuration; a large collection of small pots which would be for sale separately but which collectively would be more successful at bringing in funds for the charity. My starlings were born. They are simple thrown forms, altered with a pinch to allow them to be picked up; they are decorated with coloured slips and underglazes, and scraffito designs. They have found multiple uses; flower vases, toothbrush holders, pen pots and ornaments, quite apart from the original intention to hold and pour liquid! My enjoyment in this collective of birds is revived at every siting of a Murmuration across the country.
