Four magnificent terracotta dinosaur heads have emerged from the primeval mire here at Eastnor Pottery.

The artworks were co-created by Families who visited Eastnor Castle in the Summer holidays, crafted from terracotta clay, a material as old as the dinosaurs themselves!

Each Summer holiday, we are invited by Eastnor Castle to run a week long residency in the Castle Courtyard. Visitors work together on large composite forms. In the past, giant pheasants, Daleks and owls have all been immortalised in ceramic. This year the potting participants worked on a T-Rex, Triceratops and x2 Velociraptors.

Everybody lent a hand to ‘coil’ the dinosaur body by layering long snakes of clay on top of each other. The surface is then smoothed off and individual dinosaur scales added to the form. We encourage the children and grown-ups to make highly decorated scales encrusted with whatever takes their fancy! For example, If you take a close look at T-rex you will spot a rose, ladybird and a potato waffle amongst hundreds of other designs.

We reckon we must have worked with over 1000 people, young and old during the week, all contributing a mini work of art covering the pre-historic beasts.

The four dino-heads are currently here at the Pottery and participants who took part in the workshops at the castle are invited to drop by to see if they can spot their contribution. We are open Tues – Saturday 10am – 4pm.

Don’t worry if you can’t visit the Pottery as there are some photographs of the fired pieces on the Pottery’s FaceBook page.

Triceratops made it into The Hereford Times!