narrative mug

Over April vacation last year, I went to the Bahamas with my family and some good friends.  While we were there, we rented a boat and drove it over to this little island with a restaurant called the chat and chill. We got a really yummy lunch and then went and swam with the sting rays off the beach. When I started planning my design for the mug, I knew I wanted to include the boat, sting rays, and the ocean. After that, I had to figure out what to put on the rest of the mug. While on the trip, I also saw lots of coral and different kinds of fish, so I decided to include those as well. For each item, I decided to carve out the shape and glaze it. I didn't like the feeling of holding the mug and having something poke out, so I carved instead. To incorporate different colors, I used underglaze and stained my carved out shapes before glazing the rest. This made it easier to go over the whole mug with regular glaze. For my handle, I wanted to include how we went out to chat and chill and stayed there for a while, so I turned it into the rope from the boat to the anchor. 

If I were to go back and change an aspect of my mug to make it more clear, I would        include more details to show where we were on vacation to make the story more personal. I would include the Bahamas flag or maybe a sign that said Bahamas or the place we saw these sting rays. I feel like this would help other viewers understand the piece more and how meaning full the vacation was for me.