I trapped six baby birds inside their mother to make another ceramic chicken maraca.

I trapped six baby birds inside their mother to make another ceramic chicken maraca. After the success of my first maraca hen, I wanted to make a bigger one with even more baby birds inside to achieve a different maraca sound and because it's so cute. I made a little mistake at first because after forming the solid hen out of clay, I started scooping out the innards before the clay had firmed up enough on the outside. So I had to put her back together and let the outside dry a bit more before continuing because the hen was getting too deformed. After a couple of hours, the clay hardened enough and I finished scooping and smoothing the interior for the birdies. I made the birdies out of the scooped out clay- Chippy triplets, and Cookie triplets, who are characters from the original maraca hen. Lots of people suggested wrapping the babies in some kind of paper to prevent sticking, so I did a version of this and gave them a little toilet paper rug to sit on. This means I can't tip the mama hen over until she's fired, or they'll roll off their rug. There's still the chance they'll become conjoined triplets, but that's not super likely because clay generally doesn't stick to other clay unless it's slipped and scored together. The toilet paper is just an extra precaution. To give the babies a way to breathe, I poked a hole through the hen's mouth with a curved pin. I hope I didn't poke any of the birdies! This will also help the hen and her babies dry faster. I decorated her tail side with a sgraffito Chippy and Cookie, and one who got separated from the group and can be seen confusedly wondering where everyone went among the flowers. Time to let this hen and babies dry fully before getting bisque fired, glazed, and glaze fired, and then we can hear what noise the babies make when I shake the hen.