I'm inspired by the well-known Latvian folk song: "Run little oriole, howler of hills, call me back home, the traveller of the world…" My svilpaunieks is this oriole flying in the world as a memory from Latvia!

I create each and every svilpaunieks using the oldest ceramics technique from the Neolithic Era – hand-building. Now you know that every bird for each guest of our Presidency will be special and unique.

This summer we noticed a beautiful and unseen bird in our backyard. Looking it up in the encyclopaedia we found out that it's a hoopoe - a rare bird species nominated as Latvia's Bird of the Year 2014. Celebrating this encounter we turned a piece of clay into this magnificent bird.

I'm a potter in the fifth generation and I've been making these little whistles since I was little, since I can remember myself. Every bird turns out differently so I can surely say that each bird has its own song.