Clay is a natural material and can be only controlled to a certain extent. Furthermore, the oven plays a major part in the ceramic process. Artists can spend weeks preparing their object yet when it finally goes into the oven control is taken out of their hands. Even the most experienced can open the oven after a weekend of firing to find disaster. We wanted to capture this excitement, anxiety and surprise in this book design. Consequently, the reader must bake the book in their oven at 65 degrees before reading. Only then will they experience the dramatic transformation from stark white to black, revealing the cover design. A special edition emphasises the theme ‘mistakes’ with the inclusion of a 1mm thick sheet of porcelain as the front cover. Not only does it require baking to reveal the design but inevitably, whether through the sheer weight of other books or mishandling the cover will crack. Consequently, the reader, like the ceramicist learns to accept and appreciate the beauty of mistakes. The book’s layout plays with this fragility, splitting Dutch and English texts over pages and positioning content precariously close to edges.