Textured mugs

I love textured mugs. They have so much more character than a regular, store bought mug.  I fashioned a die for our extruder from scrap lumber,  so the handles are all more uniform. 

They use slab technique and scoring and slipping.  we have roll sets that include a roll, 2 pieces of fabric, and thickness gauges.  

Students roll out a slab, apply a texture using a texture rubbing sheet, and cut out an 11x4 slab.  

This is then picked up, turned into a cylinder and the ends are scored and slipped together.

The scrap clay from this initial rolling is recycled into a smaller slab that will be used to form the base.  This is attached using S&S, and then cut out and flipped.

At this stage, students make sure there are no sharp edges, no holes, and their name and year is on the base.

they are set to the side for the next day and handles.

The handles are extruded, and usually attached on the seam from yesterday, to facilitate a stronger bond.

Once dry, they are kiln fired to bisque ware.

Glazing is fairly simple, unless the students want to accentuate their textures.  In that case, we use a subtractive method as follows.

 1. They apply 1 layer of glaze they want in the depths of the texture.  Then they take a sponge and wipe flat across the tops of the texture, removing glaze there, but keeping it in the grooves.  The top areas are glazed with a second color, and then clear glaze over it all for a second coat.

Fired again and ready for drinking!

We use a low temp white earthenware.  Cone 04.  Done right, these are functional and beautiful!