Narrative Slab Mug

• Purpose: Make a slab mug that demonstrates connecting slabs securely, creating and attaching a handle, and illustrates a personal narrative. This should be done through the handle, textures, added-on features and/or glazing.

• Reflection:

My narrative mug tells the story of when my family went to Greece over christmas break in 2023. We first went to Athens, which is shown by the graffiti letters that spell out Athens in greek. I first carved into the surface using a needle tool then used a ribbon tool to carve around the letter, making the letters pop out from the surface a bit. I wanted to do this so I could outline the letters in black, making it stand out like the actual graffiti in Athens. I also wanted to spell it out in Greek because most, if not all the graffiti we saw was in Greek and it was very stylistic and vibrant, I wanted to capture a part of that. Next we went to Santorini, a small island some 120 miles from the mainland. Since we were there in the winter and the island thrives off of tourism, it was very…calm. There was one beautiful sunny day where we decided to go exploring and look at some local shops. It was at this quaint, half underground store that I bought a handmade ring with a mati(evil eye) on it. I wanted to include this in my mug, because not only is it a known part of greek culture, but I had an amazing and heartwarming conversation with the store owner. To craft it I rolled out a small circular slab and stuck it on. Then I used the same carving technique as my letters to make the different layers of it. Lastly, we ferried over to Crete, the largest of all the Greek islands. We stayed in the city of Chania and our Airbnb sat atop a large hill overlooking most of the urban city. We spent the majority of our time exploring the old venetian port that was there, the restaurants, maritime museum, and shops. But the most memorable thing was the lighthouse that sat on an extended arm of the port. It wasn’t impressively tall or distinctly colorful, but it was a beautiful piece of history, and I wanted to also include that in my mug. I carved the top section of the lighthouse with a needle tool, then used a super small piece of slab to create the lower half. Throughout our whole trip, I saw the same colorful flags, and though I never got the meaning behind them I thought they were a fun detail to add in. To make them I used the same carving technique as the letters and evil eye. I could have done so many different things with this mug, but I am happy with what I chose and how it has become a token of our trip. To make my narrative more clear I would spend more time on the graffiti and the lighthouse, seeing as those two areas were ones I had to rush a bit and I like them the least. I would spend more time carefully carving around the letters to make them distinct and exactly how I wanted them to look, and then once that is fired I would spend way more time carefully glazing them and finding a better brush to do so. For the lighthouse, I would not make the bottom half a slab, I would instead make the whole depiction carved, this would make it more uniform and easier to glaze.