100 Cup Journey

74 cups to go! 

It might sound like a lot of cups and it might even sound like a chore,  but I really am enjoying myself. 

I opened my baby kiln today and unloaded my latest batch of cups.  These are all English Porcelain fired to Cone  6 in Oxidation.  All the stamps are created by me and made by me that are used on the exterior of the cups to create the various textures.

I believe I am improving my skill level with each batch of cups.  There are so many steps in the making of one of these cups and all need to be done in rather quick succession before the clay dries too much. 

Let me list the steps:
1) Throw on the pottery wheel the basic cup form
2) Stamp exterior of mug (At this point I have already made 5-6 new stamps for this batch of work).
3) Trim bottom of cup form
4) Extrude or Pull handle
5) Add any slip trailing detail
6) Apply Under glaze
7) Bisque Fire to Cone 05
8) Glaze
9) Glaze Fire and done.

A few of my new cups - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did making them.

Did I mention the 100 cups thing?

That's right, 100 cups.  I have given myself the challenge to produce 100 cups over the next 3 months.  I have been working on cups off and on trying to find my form or voice - a vessel shape that pleases me.  I thought maybe after 100 cups I might be a little closer to the end of my journey. 

These are the second batch of cups I have worked on in the series.  These are porcelain with under glaze.  I thought it would be interesting to show you what a cup looks like before it is bisque fired - you see, these are still just raw dry clay (no firing has been done at this stage in the process).

The raise relief detail is called slip trailing.  This is a liquefied clay that is applied much like a icing on a cake. The color you see is called under glaze which is a glaze that will appear under the more translucent glaze applied after the bisque fire.

Cup Journey

My progression and development of such a simple object as the cup continues and I now think it will be a life time Journey. To take an object as simple as a cup one can can create countless variations.  The search for any artist in his or hers craft is what speaks to them and this is what I believe I'm still searching for in the cup - that voice that tells me this is what I need to make.

I was fortunate to take a workshop from Kristen Kieffer who makes amazing porcelain cups that are richly detailed using stamps, slip trailing, altered forms and under glazes. Most of these techniques I have tried in some small way but never all together and on such a simple shape as the cup.  The images here are some of the cups I have made recently on my journey.

Jars - What's Inside?

 I recently had the desire to create a series of lidded jars.  I think the lidded jar always grabs the attention and curiosity of the viewer as the lid is always the first thing removed.

What could possibly be hiding inside?

All are porcelain and fired to Cone 6.



Gun Metal Metallic Glaze.

 Something new in my glazing is the metallic glaze on pots as I have only used it on pendants in the past.

The glaze contains no lead and is food safe.







Place Settings

Inspired by my favorite production pottery-Heath and my wanting to to try and produce several new place settings of dinnerware I sat down at the wheel and glaze table and these are the results.  All are porcelian and fire to Cone 6.  Plates are 10.5" in Diameter.

These are my preferred color combinations but all the place settings are intended to be mixed and matched.