handled cups, series a

After a stretch of experimenting with different clay bodies and forms, I wanted to set myself a proper test, so I decided to throw a series of simple handled mugs that were all the same size and shape. I’d got used to throwing whatever I felt like, that working to exact measurements felt a bit daunting, and to make it harder I decided to pull every handle by hand.

The calculating, throwing and measuring turned out to be easier than I expected. Getting the handles to match was a different story, and it took a lot more attempts than I’d like to admit before they looked like they belonged to the same set.

For these I used a clay with more grog than I’m used to, which was quite rough on my hands at the wheel but made attaching the handles much easier. I’ve also been playing around with slips lately, so I coated the outside of each mug in porcelain slip to see what it would do to the texture. It didn’t turn out how I’d planned, but it ended up giving the matte white glaze a really nice base to sit on.