New Mugs

I’ve been terribly neglectful of my blog lately. It’s not a bad thing really – it means that I’ve been preoccupied in my studio, working on new ideas and building up inventory in anticipation of a great craft show season that for me, starts in April.

Some of the things I’ve been working on are bowls and platters with cut rims and new mug shapes, including the one on the left above. This particular shape was inspired by a friend who received a mug (the one on the right) made by a student as a thank-you gift for a project she worked on at Mass College of Art. Because she loved it so much, she asked me to recreate one for her husband for Christmas. My version is bigger and fatter at the bottom and the rim is thinner, but the shape is pretty close to what she was looking for. It’s virtually impossible and not exactly desirable to copy someone else’s work, so it felt a little funny using hers as model. I do have to say that I love the thumb-hold idea and plan to use it again on some other mugs I have in mind. And the glaze on my mug looks nothing like my friend’s, one big difference being that mine was electric-fired versus gas-fired and I used a wax-resist technique on the bare clay for the pattern. All in all my friend was quite pleased with the result. I’m now back to the drawing board experimenting with some new shapes and designs along this line that will hopefully appeal to the craft-goers this Spring.