The Making of a mug

The making of a mug from clay is a beautifully long process that starts with a ball of clay.

There are a MILLION different types of clay bodies you can use. For this mug, I used Standard speckled brown clay and the handle with Laguna brownstone clay.

Process

The process begins with “throwing” the clay on a wheel which follows these steps:

1. CENTER (coning up and down with your hands until you find the center).

2. OPEN the clay and find the bottom of the pot.

3. SMOOTH the clay.

4. PULL the mug’s walls up making sure the walls have even thickness.

5. I then use a little piece of suede to SMOOTH and refine the lip.

6. CUT the mug off of the bat with a wire tool.

It should then get covered and left to dry for about a day (dependent on weather and humidity). You want it to slow dry until it feels like leather.

Trimming

After the vessel has dried for about a day, it is time to trim the piece! The vessel goes back on the wheel, is centered, and trimmed.

My favorite tool to use for this is a KSP-4 Kemper tool.

Next the handle is added to the mug!

To make the handle:

1. Pull the clay out to form the handle. Keep pulling it and set it up to firm until it’s stiff enough to attach.

2. Hold the handle piece up to the mug and fit it to the vessel.

3. Trim the handle to fit.

4. Slip, score, and add wet clay to where you want to attach it.

6. Once the handle is added, flip it upside down to make sure the handle doesn’t come up over the lip. Keeping it below the lip will help prevent it from getting damaged.

I then add my signature to the bottom before letting it bone dry for about a week.

Firing

The mug is then bisque-fired in the electric kiln. Bisque firing is done at cone 05/1888 degrees F and takes 8-12 hours depending on how full the kiln is and has to cool for an equal amount of time before you open it up.

Glaze

After coming out of the bisque firing, I now have a vessel that is porous like a hard sponge which is perfect for absorbing the glaze.

I wax the bottom of the mug to keep the glaze from soaking into that area. I glazed this mug with white on the outside, Vals turquoise on the inside, and purple sheeno on the rim.

It then goes into the kiln to be fired at 2232 degrees F.

Opening the kiln is like Christmas Day!

Every time. I’m never sure exactly what the pieces will look like and it’s such a fun surprise inspecting the pieces. Sometimes you cry because you didn’t get what you wanted but most of the time you are really happy.