2. Dull glaze base. This again, can be obtained from a pottery supplier. It can be used in experiments in making more subde, matt-surfaced glazes.

3. Oxides. I would suggest the following as a beginning: Manganese. This is used to produce a variety of dark, often rather purply browns. Iron. This is also used to make browns, but of a redder variety.

Cobalt. This will make blue. It is very strong indeed, and only a very little is needed. Copper. This will make greens. If used on red clay, it can produce a very lovely greeny-brown. Tin. This makes transparent glaze white and opaque.

4. Underglaze paints. These are used for decorating pottery. Most pottery suppliers have an enormous list of them. They can be mixed with water like ordinary powder colour and used in much the same way. When mixed with water underglaze paint needs a low temperature firing (about 750) to fix it. If gum arabic is used instead of water, this firing will not be necessary and glaze can be poured over the paint without damaging it. The paints can also be used to colour glazes, although this may prove an extravagant way of working.

With these materials and equipment a fair amount of work may be attempted. I think it is important, whenever work is fired and glazed, that a careful record is kept of what happens to each piece of work—the materials used, the method of decorating, the firing temperatures, and the final result. In this way, it is possible, over a period of time, to build up a really good collection of glaze recipes. Every pottery, however amateur, should start a glaze book, in which all successful glazes are recorded.

What avenues can we explore in modelling? In many ways, I find it more difficult to suggest exploration for this, perhaps because, in practice, such suggestions come, as they always should, from observation of the children. There is no doubt that in work with clay, as in work with other media, directed exploration should be preceded by quite a considerable amount of work which is completely the child's choice. It must be appreciated that it is really necessary for a child to pass through the "scribble" stage with a new medium, a time when little work of apparent value is being attempted. At the Infant stage we expect this, and ideally all these media should be introduced long before a child reaches the Junior school. In fact, this does not always happen, and when we introduce a new medium to Juniors we often feel we are wasting time if work is not started right away. I think it is reasonable to let children play with a new material for a short time, then, "scribbling" completed, they will be ready to follow suggestions given, or they will have ideas of their own which they wish to carry out. (This does not happen with adolescents or adults, who are usually much too self-conscious to experiment freely. With these older people, definite direction is needed from the beginning.)

Children in schools where the opportunity to carry out personal ideas is given frequently will want to spend time with a new medium in trying out ideas of their own. Sooner or later, however, various needs will become evident. It will be clear, for example, that some possibilities are being ignored, and it is at this point that some directed exploration is needed. Some of the following suggestions can then be carried out:

1. Modelling by building up, adding small pieces of clay with fingers or a modelling tool, until the desired shape is reached.

2. Modelling of people and animals. It is unlikely that children will not have attempted this for themselves. The modelling of figures, to some extent, follows the same sort of pattern as the drawing of figures. In both, we reach a point, usually at about nine years old, when a child wishes to work in a more detailed and visually lifelike way. There are two aspects of modelling which he may be encouraged to explore at this point. He may be encouraged to discover textures in clay, which represent things like hair and clothing. He may also be encouraged to explore the relations of one part of the human figure to another—how long are the legs compared with the body, how big is the head, and so on. This demands a different kind of observation from that needed for drawing, an observation of three dimensions rather than two. Just as at this stage in drawing a child needs constant encouragement to go and look at things, so in modelling his work will need constant reference to life. His imagination needs to be constantly fed with knowledge about the appearance of things.

3. Working in the round. Some children start modelling in relief and need definite instruction before they discover how to model in the round. There is, in any case, a tendency to look at the work only from one angle. Children should be encouraged to look at their work from every side, and to explore possibilities of arrangement. A good way of doing this with older children is to make some people from rolls and balls of clay. The body is a thick roll and is topped by a short roll for the neck and a ball of clay for the head. Arms and legs also are made from rolls of clay, and the relative lengths and sizes of each can be observed and discussed. The figure is then stuck together. It will be found that the limbs and body can be freely moved and bent into many positions. A number should be tried out, and looked at from all angles. When the pose is finally settled the figure can be built up as necessary with small pieces of clay.