An experienced and talented potter messaged me asking how to make an unusual mug that was not marked by the potter. My friend had stumbled upon this mug of unusual shape at a thrift store and included an image.
The image clued me into the construction. It seemed to me that the original design came from a happy accident. This piece seemed it was going to be a vase, but I bet the original potter cut a hole through the bottom. When the potter took off the piece from the wheel, they flipped it over to look at the bottom. While doing so, they set the piece with the vase top on the wheel. The potter liked the shape so much that they decided to salvage the vase and turn it into a mug.
I decided to make this mug of unusual shape.
This mug of unusual shape started with 1.25 lbs of clay.
I wanted to make this a 5” tall mug and was worried that with the collared neck, that I wouldn’t meet that height. But I had forgotten that I didn’t need much, if any, clay at the bottom of the thrown piece. So, this easily turned out to be 5” tall.
Because the bottom of this “vase” will become the lip of the mug, I am careful to measure the base to between 3 to 4 inches. I really want 3.5 inch width at the mug lip. I ended up with about 3.25” by the calipers. So I widen it a teeny tiny bit more.
So now I have a shape similar to the original mug image. Right now this is a small vase on the wheel. In the interest of speed, I dried the vase with a heat shrink gun. I could have just set it aside until it became leather hard.
I was kind of hoping that I had made the vase bottom thin enough to slice a hole in the bottom when I wired it off the bat to match my narrative, LOL! Obviously, that didn’t happen.
Now that this vase is upside down, it resembles the mug shape.
Next, I cut off the top (of what I’m now calling a mug).
Here’s the edge of the mug lip cleaned up. So now I have a piece with two holes: the top of the mug and the hole in the bottom.
A small slab of clay was rolled out. Because this was my first time making this style of mug, I was not sure of the size I needed. So, I cut 2 different sizes of circles in the slab.
This mug needed the larger slab. I gently placed the slab in the mug bottom and outlined the slab location onto the mug. Then I removed the slab from the mug. I just flipped the mug over the let the slab fall out.
Then I scored and slipped under the line I just made in the mug. I also scored and slipped the outside edge of the slab.
Afterwards, I worked the slab with scored slip down into position by using my fingers in both holes. Then I placed the mug back onto the wheel.
Using the back end of a wooden knife, I pulled the slab edge toward the mug wall.
Next, I treated the mug as if I were throwing a mug bottom with a curved wooden rib.
It may not have needed the extra support, but I also added a small ribbon of clay to the underside/bottom of the mug where the slab met the walls. That’s just good hand building technique.
And voila! A mug of unusual shape.
This piece is destined for a salt glaze wood fire kiln, so I will show the final results here when the mug is finished.
This design is a bit fiddly, but it definitely is do-able. So have fun!
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