Another chilly morning… another 10×10 Challenge! It’s warm enough in the studio this morning for another productive morning of wheelthrowing… making more than ten before 10:00am! This time embracing a new mug shape. Sure, I could’ve made “one” prototype to see how it works… but that just not my style! Here we go… full-speed ahead!!!

One last thing before they dry… I added a layer of colored flashing slip to my batch of hybrid mugs. At some point, these mugs will be soda-fired so they should change to shades of oranges & yellows during the atmospheric firing.

After an afternoon of attaching handles… I now have a new batch of hybrid mugs.
And all of them with the popular coneflower pattern from a MKM Pottery Tools handroller.

Handles pulled & resting… well, setting up & firming a bit before I start attaching them to make more mugs! I like to loop them over & stand them up so they can “stiffen” a bit with a good curve already established before attaching.

Getting ready to pull some handles again!!!
The more you do, the easier they get… just sayin’…

They’re coming along nicely… a fresh batch of hybrid mugs in the works!
Next up… trimming, then handles!

Accents painted & done! These mugs will be bisqued & then soda-fired. So they will not get any glaze on the exterior except for a little tenmoku in each stamped impression. The raw clay & colored flashing slips will transform in the kiln due to the firing process creating a nice “glazed” shine & flashing effects. Each one totally different based on where the flames hit it during the soda firing.

Just painting some details with colored flashing slips today. These areas will change colors in an upcoming soda firing kiln. These two should have accents of orange when this slip reacts to the soda atmosphere. Fingers crossed…

So tonight during class, I trimmed my demo mugs & put them back under plastic while I did my handle-pulling demo. As I was getting ready for the attachment demo… someone (me) “might have” knocked over my bag of clay & it landed on one of my trimmed cylinders! Great demo, huh?!!! Actually it was good for them to see… things happen… it’s just clay!!!

I was going to call it quits and reclaim it. But thanks to Andrew’s encouragement, I “resurrected it” with a little ball of clay to keep it sitting level. Not ideal… but it might be funny… or it might lead us to something new?! So it has a handle now… it survived class… for now anyways ?!

Tonight was “Mug Night” with my beginning wheel class. First they learned how to trim their cylinders from last week. Then the pulled handles the traditional way. We let them set-up a bit & then they attached their handles… thus creating their first mugs of the session!!!

Pretty impressive for only their second class of the session!!!