The Dancing Mug

[mafief]

My mom and I both adore pottery. She has been taking pottery classes for around five years and getting pretty good. Below is one of her style of mugs. The handle was inspired by a tea cup from Azerbaijan and she’s been perfecting it. The outside is pressed with Queen Ann’s Lace and stained dark. The clay isn’t finished on the outside, so the surface is rough. The lip and inside are glazed robin egg blue and smooth.


The outside impression reminds of letters from the late 1800’s on parchment paper, which gave me an idea for a new mug. I wanted to write one of the Sherlock Holmes stories on the mug, stain the writing dark and have black inside glaze. Writing on clay is not easy, and I printed the words instead of using cursive. I’m very happy with myself that I kept things relatively straight, evenly spaced, and of similar size. Choosing the story and what line to write took longer than writing on the clay. In the end, I chose the beginning of The Dancing Men, because that domestic scene is one of my favorites. The dots represent paragraph breaks and will be filled with red to represent bullet holes (which I realize is a little gruesome, but oh well). I even got the little dancing men on the handle, because why not. ;)

Pre-writing. The sponge keeps the handle from drooping.


Post writing. Mug will need to dry completely and be fired


Post first firing after glazing and staining.


I love how this is coming out. The writing looks great and is exactly what I’ve been picturing. It’s still not done yet. We are waiting for the pottery studio artist to fire up her gas kiln. She doesn’t use it in the summer because it’s so hot.

Lastly, the best perk is collaborating with my mom on this project. :)

Comments

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

This is extraordinary! I love it! I am so impressed by your craftsmanship and skill as well as the final product.

[mafief]

Thank you. :) I'm really pleased you like it as well.
I'm beyond excited for the final product. I've been (impatiently) waiting since the winter for the finished mug. It still has to survive the final firing (fingers crossed!). If it turns out how I think it should, I'd like to make more...
It's been a team effort and she's done most of the work (building the mug and the staining/glazing). I just come up with ideas, convince her, and do the fussy detailed work that she doesn't like. We've had a few projects that didn't go as well, and this is by far the best that's come out.

[smallhobbit]

That is amazing. Really effective and so cleverly done.

[mafief]

It was the talk of the studio when my mom first put the stain on. It was a boring white mug, but the stain made all of the words pop.

[scfrankles]

I've just been decoding your handle ^__^ Great choice ^_^

Just adding to all the applause - this is so elegant and beautiful. Such an inspired concept, and wonderful work from the two of you. Will you eventually use the mug, or is it meant to be simply something beautiful to look at? ^^

[mafief]

I thought that portion of the code was fitting. :) I wanted to use one from the story. The first mug we collaborated on was a gift for my graduate advisor. It also had a code. My former advisor’s first name could be spelled out in the amino acid single letter code. So, DNA bases would be ATG that encodes a methionine and we would represent that as an M.

The mug will be completely functional and durable. Other things she’s made are just pretty, but we both prefer the functional ones. It can be microwaved and sent through the dishwasher. It’s on the big size. My mom used the bottom of a wine bottle as a mold. The mug in the first picture was formed around a beer bottle. The technique she uses is called hand building and she has to use molds to get the shapes she needs.