3 Thrown Mugs

Essential Question: What role does persistence play in revising, refining, and developing work?

Research & Planning

Reflection

Since this was the first project of the semester, getting used to using the wheels was a little bit of a challenge. I had to get a feel for the clay again and kind of start from square one. I knew the basics of throwing, but the hands-on part was something I had to get used to again. Making sure my mugs got to the right height, width, thickness, and shape I wanted them to be. Before this assignment, I had only made mugs that had straight edges, and no funky shapes, so this time I wanted to step outside of my comfort zone and make some cool shapes. It took a lot of time, trial and error to get the shapes that I wanted, I didn’t end up with one shape that I wanted but I love how the mug (moon mug) turned out instead. As seen in my rough draft sketches you can tell I didn’t know what surfaces I was set on doing on each mug, overall the revising process was very important for me because, with my flower mug, I was going to try putting sprigs on it but instead, I did a new surface technique water etching and I loved how the texture turned out. Having patience with myself and being persistent was key to this assignment especially since it was the first one back, I needed to have a lot of patience with myself on the wheel and while deciding glazes, I went back and forth on ideas with Holly and that helped a lot.

I love all of my mugs, the cone 5-6 glazes can be so unpredictable, and with my carved mug I didn’t expect it to come out as light as it did. Out of the three mugs, I think the moon one is my favorite, just because I love how funky the shape of the mug is, and the color scheme is more my style than the other two mugs. I feel like this one took a lot of time because to get the moons and make them shiny I had to put a clear coat of glaze on the clay before I used wax to make the moons. Then when putting my glazes (artic blue and true celadon) over the moons I had to go in with a Q-tip and make sure there was no glaze on the moons so they would come out clean. I feel this was the mug that took the most time because of how precise I had to be but the flower mug was a close second. On the moon mug, I feel that you can see how clean the glaze went on, and I love how the inside is also blue but it's a different glaze (frosted turquoise) that kind of looks crackled after it has been fired and I think that is one of my favorite touches on this mug. I think my second most refined mug is my flower one just because getting that shape on the wheel and making the walls of the mug thinner than I normally do took a lot of time, as well as the water etching of the flowers. I do wish the glaze on the inside and the handle of the mug weren’t as streaky but I think that is because I put mixing clear over it by accident, and if that didn’t happen and if my purple flower was still visible I feel that this mug would have been my most refined.

I would say one of the most important things for me during this project was having an open mind along with that is some patience. If you come into the class with your mind set on something specific that helps but also having an open mind about glaze techniques and shapes was extremely helpful for me. Like I said before the shape of my moon mug was exactly the shape I wanted but it is now my favorite mug because of how unique it is. Patience throughout the whole process is so important also like I said before, during throwing, glazing, and even when it is firing having patience is key. I also think having a plan is important, even though it is a requirement for this assignment I think it is helpful and should be taken advantage of. I like how I did a rough draft page then when I narrowed it down to shape and ideas I made a final draft page to show what my mugs would look like, and including color on that was fun! Having a plan helped me stay focused on my end goal because I had come into class with no plan before, and then I wasn’t as excited about my project because I didn’t have a vision of it.