CityScape Mugs

I had mentioned the other day that I made some tall mugs that will fit into a cupholder for your morning commute. Well, they got a CityScape deco on them. I had done a similar deco a long time ago using wax, glaze and a wood kiln so we'll see if this heads anywhere.

A Couple of Mugs

Fluted mug with Willy's Helix, Pinnell Clear on the inside.

I was playing around with some color on this one. I think a combo of a little dust and too thick of an application with the clear glaze caused a little crawling on the rim.

I love the white though and look forward to thinning the glaze out and using it again. Too bad I only have about 30 pounds of porcelain left. Something to look forward to in Austin I guess.

Mug Pairs

I'm still cruising with the porcelain and a little over a week into it I'm beginning to enjoy the stuff.  

Instead of making mugs in sets of 6-8 at a time like I normally do, I decided to make them in pairs as I get used to porcelain again and try out different forms and different handles.  It's been a fun exercise and has also kept things light in the studio as I'm starting to wind down life as a maker on the Cape.  

I do have to say that I'm looking forward to decorating all of this pure white ware.  I'm planning on mixing up a clear glaze for an electric firing and decorating most of the work with some underglazes via Silvie Granatelli's site.  The recipe I've been using is for bone dry ware:

epk 100

frit 3134 100

stain 100

The mugs in the last image have a couple of coats of the underglaze stain on them, I used a sage green mason stain on them.  This is all new to me as I experiment with some more electric firings to prepare for our move. I'm trying to turn all of my raw clay into pots so I have work finished while I figure out my studio setup down in Austin.

The move, by the way, is starting to become extremely real and nerve-racking....we are moving on August 10th.  I've been busy getting estimates and figuring out what's coming, what's staying and what's going.  It's all very confusing. 

Mugs

Much to Brandon's dismay a lot of my work spends a good deal of time under plastic.  Here's a typical journey.  

1-After being thrown, live under plastic....these actually only spent 1 day being asphyxiated.  Sometimes 3-4 days is needed.

2-Let them breathe.

3-Pick one perfectly leather-hard specimen.
4-Miraculously attach a handle to porcelain.

5-Is a hidden step...they went back under plastic for a day...come on....it's porcelain and a handle...I had to.

6-Get some black slip and design away....

More Fluting

It sure is making a mess. 

Here are a few cappuccino cups:trimmed, cut foot, and partially fluted.

A few taller mugs with the same treatment.

Handled

It only took a little while but I got handles on these 6 mugs.  I still don't know what the big deal was....there were only 6 mugs!

First 2 are a little smaller so I tried a nice little 2 finger handle.

These taller mugs got a full handle.  

Slipped and waxed....later tonight I'll incise and slip....or perhaps cover them with plastic and do it in the morning.  Pics whenever that happens.  

I still have another 1/2 dozen mugs to handle...of course to complicate things the new ones have to be trimmed.  As always, if I can find another step...I will.

Why....

....do I dread putting handles on mugs.  I tend to leave mugs hiding under plastic for at least 2-3 days before I put handles on them.  I'm not sure why.  It doesn't take me that long to do it and I actually enjoy putting them on.  

I finally put handles on 8 mugs that were being shuffled under plastic from shelf to shelf as I needed room for my bowls.  What a waste of time it is to procrastinate....Now they're done and I can avoid this next set of mugs for at least an hour.

New Mug

What a treat!

After a great Thanksgiving and a successful Trunk Show the only bad thing was that we had a horrendous drive home through traffic and rain last night.  I'm happy to be home and I spent the day settling back in and cleaning up the gallery for our Holiday Open House on Friday evening.  I did stop by our PO Box to pick up buckets of mail. Luckily, this wonderful mug arrived today from Brandon.  Through the beauty of pottery blogging, the internets and the USPS we worked out a trade.  I've already enjoyed one afternoon cup of coffee with this beauty and it will start my day off tomorrow.

The return mug is on it's way tomorrow morning.  Sorry Brandon....kids got in the way of me getting everything done that I wanted to today.  

Thanks Brandon!  

Latest Firing

Back to Pots...Really.

I have a table full of finished mugs.  I started out this cycle deciding to make mostly larger pieces.  Large vases, large bowls, large platters and then something happened and my scale shrunk back down.  I have a nice variety of small, medium and large pieces now.  So...I'm glad that I didn't stick to my game plan.

I'm looking for some energy to start glazing for this next kiln-load.  I have the final, very damp bisque soaking right now and will fire that off later tonight.  I haven't really started glazing yet...I've just been staring blankly at the bisqueware on tables and shelves all afternoon.

I really like how everything turned out so I basically see almost everything getting a thick coating of celadon again and hoping for the best.  So....tonight will be a prep session....waxing, clearing shelves and the like and getting ready to really glaze tomorrow....hopefully.  I do need this next round of pots for the show so I need to get that motivation back soon.  I'm going with the theory that this will be like painting...the prep work takes some time and isn't fun but the actual glazing will go quickly and then I can load up quickly.

Here are a couple pics of my table of mugs.

Pots...again

Wow...not only a post two days in a row but a second post of pots.  I'm still catching up on everything that was under plastic since last weekend.    

I love photographing mugs this way.  These are squared and are going to get slipped, waxed, scratched and slipped again tomorrow.

Here are a few of the boxes.  I really liked how the black and white mugs looked so I'm going to try it even though this is on stoneware....we'll see....we always do, right?

Here's the front...or the back side of the boxes.  I needed to figure out a way to tell people how to line everything back up.  My OCD-ness comes out when someone looks at a pot in the shop or booth and puts the lid back on incorrectly.  Drives me nuts!!!  I mean...I didn't spend all that time putting that pattern on that pot to not have it look good. 

And finally tonight...here's one of the oval vases that I had made the other day.  I "wobbled" the rim a little bit and cut a foot and I like how it looks.  This one and the boxes still need their black slip for the lines.  They'll get that tomorrow.  I really want to make another batch of these vases tomorrow in various sizes for the next firing.  As always...we'll see what happens with that plan.

Tengo sueño...buenas noches.  

Mugs

I threw some mugs yesterday while I was waiting for bowls and plates to dry for trimming.  I've been putting handles on all morning.  It seems to take me forever to finish up mugs.  Perhaps I'm pricing them low for the amount of work that goes into them.

Is this a good time to raise prices?  Clearly...I'm a little worried about selling pots at my upcoming shows.  Has anyone else noticed a slight downturn in the economy?  Until about 10 days ago apparently the fundamentals had been strong.  I hope the sarcasm comes across in this blog post.