Making mugs

Making mugs is humbling. It makes me realize again and again how difficult it is to create this thing that we take for granted in our everyday lives. We use mugs without really thinking about the effort and the materials that have gone into each one. Even those created at automated factories, someone came up with the design, the mold, and the process. The clay came from our lovely planet Earth. What other things in our lives that we take for granted? Where can we focus our attention, intention, and appreciation more?

“I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness — it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.”
— Brene Brown

On the left: handles cut into ribbons from a slab of porcelain.
On the right: handles formed into the desired shape. They must be kept at a certain moisture level to retain this shape and be strong enough to be applied to the cup.

Handles are the hardest, I cut mine out of a poured porcelain slab. They are ribbons, which must be handled with care. I bend them to the desired shape. And sometimes, they just don’t want to stay that way. :/

Even after careful handling and application, the handle will sometimes do this as it dries.

Why does this happen? Porcelain often retains a memory of its very first shape, which was a flat ribbon in this case. It tries to get back to that shape as it is drying. Yeah, frustrating. Sometimes, if I don’t time it just right, I will lose 8 out of 18 handles this way. 18 is how many molds I have made of the cup shape, and how many handles I cut at a time. It’s a delicate balance of keeping both wet enough to assemble, and dry enough to work with.

And I am still grateful for being able to work with this extraordinary material. I remove the broken handle and voilà, it’s a tumbler. The broken handle bits get reclaimed and used again. The only thing lost is time.