Mugs, Tumblers and Cup Marathon

Working in production can sure teach you a lot fo things. I have been making mugs, cups and tumblers with buttons for 5 years now and never did I have a problem with the buttons. Recently I was running really low on them and decided to go for a marathon of making mugs and cups. These are entirely handbuilt from slabs of clay and wrapped around to emmulate the look of fabric. To add to the effect I add buttons. With this marathon, I made 80+ mugs/tumblers/cups. It was a fun guessing game on Facebook when everyone jumped in guessing the number of buttons I had to put on these cups. I had to make 308 buttons total!! Since this was a lot of buttons, I changed my method slightly. Instead of making 10 buttons at a time and sticking them, I made 20 buttons at a time. This did speed up my process but everything comes at a price. Everything came out fine in the bisque firing and great in the glaze firing too. And then it was like watching a horror movie unfold in front of me. While sitting on the shelf after 3-4 hours of getting out of the kiln, I started hearing pops and pings. Curious to see what it was, I noticed a button from a cup just pop out! This has never happened so I was in complete disbelief. I did loose quite a few and I am now working on figuring out how to fix them and sell them as seconds. So look out for an online seconds sale coming up soon, where these will be sold at 50% off. I will make them look pretty again, so they will still be good. And while I am still stratching my head wondering what went wrong, I get an email which brings back a smile to my face. One of my repeat customers, Robyn, has been purchasing my mugs over the last few years. She sends me a picture of all my mugs and bowls she has purchased sitting pretty in her kitchen. She is using them everyday and loving them.Just made my day seeing a dedicated shelf for my work!

Handbuilt Tumbler Video

Last Friday, my video on making Handbuilt Tumblers/Vases was featured on Ceramic Arts Daily and it was great to get the responses from so many potters and artists. Looking at google analytics, I got hits from all around the world, majority from the United States. I had hits from every State except from North Dakota. Wonder if there are no potters there? And you can see the most are from California.

I enjoy sharing my techniques and it is always fun to see another artist's take on the same technique. If you try this technique or do handbuilding feel free to share pictures of your work in the comments section.

I got more confidence in handbuilding with slabs after taking a workshop from Ginger Steele, a potter from Oregon. I also saw a few videos on Yixing teapots from which I picked up other techniques.

Here are the steps for the process and the video

Cut template for your tumbler or cylinder from a thin slab (1/8 inch) of compressed clay. The clay needs to be a little stiffer than fresh out of the bag.
Roll the top rim with a brayer to round it making it comfortable for drinking. Roll the side of the slab to bevel it later for joining. The brayer can be purchased at a clay supply store.
Roll patterns or use stamps to decorate. This is where you can let your creativity show through. I make some stamps and some I purchase at thrift stores.
Apply slip to the sides and roll over a rolling pin to form your tumbler. To true up the roundness, use a round object like a Styrofoam ball which won’t stick to the clay.
Score and slip to add the bottom. The bottom is finished by running a profile tool (made from a popsicle stick) along the edge.
My tumblers are embellished with buttons to capture the look of embroidered fabric wrapped around and held together with buttons.
These tumblers are further decorated with slip to give more texture.

Testing to get a Color

As many of you know my pottery does have a lot of color. But getting those bright colors at mid fire range is not always easy. I struggled for the longest time to get red and after getting that 2 years back, I started on my mission to get maroon. I don't know why I do this to myself. :)

My inspiration was again from Indian fabrics. And the color maroon (a very deep red) was stuck in my head since my wedding actually (almost 8 years back). It was the color of my wife's dress she wore on the engagement night. You can see the clipping below. At that time I didn't know I wanted it on my pots but I knew I liked the color.

So after 20 -30 tests and failing at every one of them, I finally get my maroon. Most of the time the color just faded when I fired and lost its deep look. But now I finally like what I have. Check out these pots with the maroon accent.

In a way, it was time that my testing came to a conclusion. The color feature maroon was done this week on my blog and my mom sent me this beautiful bed spread in raw silk which is again rich dark maroon with gold, yellow and orange embroidery done all over.

Slip decoration

There have been several requests from potters, friends and customers who want to see the process of my slip decoration. So here it is....
These are done on my Bollywood inspired mugs and of course I have to listen to Bollywood music while making them. If you put one of my mugs against your ear you might still hear some music. :) I hope you enjoy the clip.
The music track is taken from the movie Saawariya starring Ranbir Kapoor
To purchase, please visit my store http://creativewithclay.etsy.com/

Mugs

I was reading through some blogs and came across this one from Garciela http://glyntpottery.blogspot.com/2008/08/why-pot.html

Very interesting note. I think mugs are the most intimate thing a potter makes. It is a simple form but creates this intimate connection between the potters hand and the user. When I drank first out of a hand thrown mug... I couldn't help but think who made it, whose finger marks are those, glad they made the lip of the mug in such a way that it felt so soothing to me, the handle was made for me to hold it.

Every potter I know is always perfecting their mugs. They want their work to be individual and at the same time make a connection with every person who buys them. So from being a very simple form it becomes a very complex execution.

Below you can see my transformation of cups starting from earliest to current and I am still learning to make the perfect mug!