Crying, Waiting, Hoping

Well, I'm getting very anxious, waiting on the drawings. And when I get anxious, I make mugs. Anything that is a repetitive motion that I don't really have to think about. Besides, I'm really low on mugs right now so I might as well. These are the handles for the mugs. I pull a bunch of these first and let them be drying and while they are, I trim the mugs. I will only throw about 16-20 mugs at a time. Some people will throw 100 or so in the same sitting but I just get too bored trying to do that. I have to get up and look at something else etc. I'm not a very good production potter. I like to make whatever I feel like at the time, which is not always good when you have lots of orders. Sometimes I might not feel like throwing cassaroles for a month or so.

Anyway, here I am trimming. I make a small foot on the bottom to recess my name in so it doesn't scratch the surface the mug is set on.

I attach the handle at the top and let it drap over 3 fingers and then attach the bottom. Alot of people ask me why I put that little wiggle at the bottom of the handle. One of my ceramics professors always said that a handmade item that had a utilitian purpose, should also carry a mark of the person who made the item so that the human to human connection would be obvious and complete. Their hand would use the item that your hand obviously made. Not like the sterile items from the stores. This is not a very good example of the wiggle that I'm talking about though. If you let the clay get just a little too dry it's very hard to do right.

And here's the completed mugs! Ready to dry and then be bisqued fired. Then they will be glazed and fired again. I don't know if you can see it, but on some of them I press a little seashell around the rim or bottom or some other natural object that makes a nice impression.