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To mark the British Ceramics Biennial over 6000 tiny ceramic commuters were scattered in Stoke train station and across the City of London

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The Website The Londonist reported seeing a line of little clay men on London Bridge last week.

The site posted pictures of the little clay men on their website asking readers if they knew how they arrived there and whether anyone had picked one up and popped it in their pocket.

It later transpired that it was a marketing exercise to mark the British Ceramics Biennial which opened last Friday in Stoke- On-Trent.

The miniature figures were created by artist Lawrence Epps and about 6,000 terracotta commuters were scattered in Stoke train station and a various sites around the city of London.

The artist who created these terracotta commuters told the BBC that people were encouraged to pick up a little clay figure and take it home, he said 'They are all fired to different temperatures - that brings out different shades in the clay, like autumn leaves.'

He added 'My work questions our relationship with office work: how we hate it and love it at the same time, and the way we need to work.

The scale of the art mirrors the way that sometimes, as workers, we feel dispensable.'

The British Ceramics Biennial is held every two years in Stoke, and is the UK's only festival that celebrates ceramic artists and their contemporary pottery.

As well as British artists the exhibition attracts potters from as far as Japan, Spain and India.

This idea was backed by Helen Palmer who works for the BCB, she hoped 'that commuters would be made aware of Mr Epps art and would get people to interact with his work.'

During the ceramics festival, which last six weeks, the scattered figures will be replenished with new ones around Stoke and London.

You can follow the scattering of Mr Epps' ceramic people on Twitter.com hashtag #littleclaymen

To visit the British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke-on-Trent go to BritEvents.com for more information.

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