clennell on sat 22 jan 05
Sour Cherry Pottery
> (Whatever that means for them)
> Bottom line......As the market changes, and I evolve
> in my work, I feel fortunate to somewhat feel the
> pulse of the changing trends. I believe that each of
> us produces what we believe will earn our way....I am
> happy to proclaim that "I hate making mugs"!
> Denise
> (Hunkering down in Long Island's first major snow
> storm for 2005...and loving it!)
Tony and Sheila Clennell
Sour Cherry Pottery
4545 King Street
Beamsville, Ontario
CANADA L0R 1B1
http://www.sourcherrypottery.com
http://www.sourcherrypottery.com/current_news/news_letter.html
Denise: Ouch! You've just trashed my favourite item to make. The mug maker
is dead was the death of my philosophy towards making mugs. I once threw
around 200 to a stick- same size, same everthing. Slam, bam, thank you, mam.
Now the mug has been given a place of royalty in my studio. The mug even has
it's own wheel- a treadle wheel. I love the cups i make on this wheel and it
is one of my favourite times to listen to Guy Clark.
I usually have about 24 mugs in every firing which adds up to about 400-500
a year. They are special to me and lots of potters like our cups.
I will take some to Lansing and people will arm wrestle each other to own
one. I just got an order of 4 from Linda and Charlie Riggs in NC saying
potters visiting their house fight over the one cup they have of mine. God,
that makes me feel good.
David showed a pic of a old Ford PU with the bed full of individual mugs.
I don't know how this would go over in the red states, but I even make small
shooter mugs with sterling silver lip rings. The students at Sheridan loved
them.
Mugs are an important item to make. I always say that if you can get a
person to use your mug everyday you are putting your business card in front
of them daily. The big $500 vase they might walk by and dust every two weeks
or so.
Mugs also should be expensive like Japanese Chawan. They're vvvvvvvvvvvvery
important items and ought to be collected and cherished in every potters
home.
Denise- please rethink your love/hate relationship with the worthy cup.
Cheers,
Tony
Carl D Cravens on sun 23 jan 05
On Sat, 22 Jan 2005, clennell wrote:
> Mugs are an important item to make. I always say that if you can get a
> person to use your mug everyday you are putting your business card in front
> of them daily. The big $500 vase they might walk by and dust every two weeks
> or so.
I own a big mug from Always Azul Pottery in Colorado. Bought it at the KC
Ren Faire. I drank hot chocolate out of it today while writing a paper
(with a fire in the fireplace at my back). It's gotten to the point that
I can't do any serious writing without that mug on my desk. Can't seem to
get my mind in the right mode without it. (And who can argue with a mug
that can hold three cups of hot chocolate with room to spare?)
I know where that mug came from, and have a vague idea of the hand that
crafted it. (I've met them at the Faire, but I don't know the specific
person that threw and glazed my mug.) Every time I look at the mug, I
remember the Faire, and I remember seeing Always Azul there year after
year. And I remember their name.
I haven't purchased anything from them but that mug, but I can always tell
friends where I bought it and who I bought it from.
I did go look them up on the web and discovered that they have a
bed-and-breakfast... with a weekend pottery workshop for guests. They've
about got me sold on that, now I just have to convince my wife. :)
--
Carl D Cravens (raven@phoenyx.net)
I'm not lost, I'm "locationally challenged".
ASHPOTS@AOL.COM on sun 23 jan 05
I also love making mugs..I think mugs are a very personal statement.. I have
friends also that like my mugs over other mugs ..
I think making handles that fit the mug is very important . I always pull my
handles of the mug. I pull a bunch of nubs that i attach to the mug then pull
the handle.. Also where the handle is attached to the bottom of the mug is
also a personal statement..
I have seen and i have a lot of mugs that make NO personal statement
I learned making mugs from Charles Counts, Thanks Charles,,,,
Charles would talk about pots that were inspired ,, what a great word,,,
Ive tried to make inspired pots ,, even a mug can be inspired,, if your at
NCECA check out the mugs,,, inspired or not inspired,,
To just crank out mugs with no inspiration is sad,, may as well go to Wally
World and get plastic
Mark ,, just got back from hiking both waterfalls at Cloudland Canyon.. lots
of ice,, had to help a friend push his diesel truck into his shop to warm
it,It wouldnt start..
the good part of all this cold is im making ash in my woodstove
Marta Matray Gloviczki on sun 23 jan 05
>>....I am
>> happy to proclaim that "I hate making mugs"!
>> Denise
i am sorry to hear that...
i love mugs, cups and small teabowls
to hold, to drink from, to caress, to say hi to
its maker...
i really started to collect them after my first
mug exchange in the clayart room at my first nceca,
in 1998.
now, i just counted them, out of curiosity, after reading
this thread. i have 126 mugs (and cups) from 71 different
potters. they are more valuable to me than some big
and 'famous' pots i have to dust once in a while.
i drink my first coffee from a favorite mug and i try
other ones from another potter
for my second, third and so on...
i do that also with plates and cereal bowls.
even if i dont see some of you for a long time, i feel
like i am keeping contact. and that feels so good.
marta
=====
marta matray gloviczki
rochester,mn
http://www.angelfire.com/mn2/marta/
http://users.skynet.be/russel.fouts/Marta.htm
http://www.silverhawk.com/crafts/gloviczki/welcome.html
Steve Irvine on sun 23 jan 05
>They're vvvvvvvvvvvvery
>important items and ought to be collected and cherished in every potters
>home.
It's amazing how important a simple mug can become to the owner. I have a shino mug that
Eric Wong gave to me many years ago that I use every (and I really mean every) morning for
my "first thing in the morning, gotta have a cuppa coffee" mug. I also make regular use of a
wood fired mug that Tony gave me about 20 years ago as a thanks for some stoking help
with a firing. Each of the mugs we use here have a story of some sort attached to them, a sort
of personality that makes them right for different times of day or circumstance. A good
example of a thing that is more than the sum of its parts.
Steve Irvine
http://www.steveirvine.com
Lee Love on mon 24 jan 05
Steve Irvine wrote:
>It's amazing how important a simple mug can become to the owner. I have a shino mug that
>Eric Wong gave to me many years ago that I use every (and I really mean every) morning for
>my "first thing in the morning, gotta have a cuppa coffee" mug.
>
>
I like making mugs, but my morning coffee is always in a "coffee
bowl." These are more or less French Latte bowls. I always drink
just one bowl, so the size is perfect. We brought some handled
cups with us to Japan. Mostly they are smaller (because my wife Jean
picked them out of our cupboard) and they were made by Linda Christensen
and Willem Gebben. We are most likely to use these with Earl (or
Lady) Grey (coffee in my coffee bowl, green tea in yunomi.) I brought
my collection of older stamped MacKenzie yunomi. Gave most of them as
presents to potter friends here.
I noticed on my first trip to Japan, that the best
handles in Japan are made in Mashiko. And since '93, they have only
gotten better. I figure it must be related to Hamada and Leach, who
made good handles. Also, many of the young Japanese potters here have
worked or studied in the USA or Australia
--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://www.livejournal.com/users/togeika/ WEB LOG
http://public.fotki.com/togeika/ Photos!
Ivor and Olive Lewis on mon 24 jan 05
The satisfying thing about making mugs is that you are in charge of
Design.
So you are able to select forms, and structures, and decorations, and
colours, and textures, and volumes, and sizes, that are never seen in
Super markets or Boutiques or even Galleries. Then you only have to
make one, not 200,000 a week in week out.
Now that is Power.
Best regards,
Ivor Lewis.
Redhill,
S. Australia.
Dorothy Feibleman on mon 24 jan 05
Regarding the handles, which are generally terrible in Japan--so terrible you
wonder why people even bother to attach such rubbish to their pots--- Tomimoto
once said to his students, " I would like to introduce you to Bernard Leach,
the only thing he is really good at is pulling handles"---at least that is what
I was told by Yanagihara. So, maybe that is why handles are better in Mashiko?
I was wondering why I am only happy with my handles and the ones on mugs by
Wally Keeler and Kevin de Choisey - I guess we all have rather small hands and
pull slimmer handles without rough bits poking through the glaze and the edges
don`t cut into your hand so you want to pick up the mug because it is
comfortable and fits.
I found the same with Japanese wood working / pottery tools tools. They are good
for women because they are made for people with smaller hands than the Rockwell
Delta- Harley riders in the U.S.---I have nothing against motorbikes, as I have
owned 11 over the years but all rather ancient British bikes (usually in bits
being rebuilt in the kiln room....)
Best,
Dorothy Feibleman
Quoting Lee Love :
> Steve Irvine wrote:
>
> >It's amazing how important a simple mug can become to the owner. I have a
> shino mug that
> >Eric Wong gave to me many years ago that I use every (and I really mean
> every) morning for
> >my "first thing in the morning, gotta have a cuppa coffee" mug.
> >
> >
> I like making mugs, but my morning coffee is always in a "coffee
> bowl." These are more or less French Latte bowls. I always drink
> just one bowl, so the size is perfect. We brought some handled
> cups with us to Japan. Mostly they are smaller (because my wife Jean
> picked them out of our cupboard) and they were made by Linda Christensen
> and Willem Gebben. We are most likely to use these with Earl (or
> Lady) Grey (coffee in my coffee bowl, green tea in yunomi.) I brought
> my collection of older stamped MacKenzie yunomi. Gave most of them as
> presents to potter friends here.
>
> I noticed on my first trip to Japan, that the best
> handles in Japan are made in Mashiko. And since '93, they have only
> gotten better. I figure it must be related to Hamada and Leach, who
> made good handles. Also, many of the young Japanese potters here have
> worked or studied in the USA or Australia
>
> --
> Lee in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
> http://www.livejournal.com/users/togeika/ WEB LOG
> http://public.fotki.com/togeika/ Photos!
>
>
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Jonathan Kirkendall on mon 24 jan 05
I used to think that I could call myself a potter when I could make a
decent mug.
Then I got to the place where I could make a decent mug, and I made many
of them.
Then I got tired of mugs.
Then I started making tea bowls. Then my tea bowls began to grow and
change...
...and one day I thought, hey, wouldn't a pulled handle look nice on that?
And now I'm back, making mugs that I love!
Jonathan in DC
where it's 17 degrees F and my Tibetan Mastiff sleeps on her back in the
snow.
John Jensen on mon 24 jan 05
Last year I was fortunate enough to be offered the use of an apartment in
New York for a weekend while I was getting my daughter set up in college.
I took along a mug as a small offering of thanks. The apartment owner was
absent and I had an opportunity to notice that he had one very ordinary
porcelain mug that said something like "I love NY" (or some such thing) on
it, and that white mug was nearly black on the inside from the years of tea
that had been made in it. I don't know if he ever will use the handmade,
carved shino mug I left for him; but I did see how attached some people can
get to a mug.
John Jensen, Mudbug Pottery
John Jensen@mudbugpottery.com
http://www.toadhouse.com www://www.mudbugpottery.com
It's amazing how important a simple mug can become to the owner. I have a
shino mug that
Eric Wong gave to me many years ago that I use every (and I really mean
every) morning for
my "first thing in the morning, gotta have a cuppa coffee" mug. I also make
regular use of a
wood fired mug that Tony gave me about 20 years ago as a thanks for some
stoking help
with a firing. Each of the mugs we use here have a story of some sort
attached to them, a sort
of personality that makes them right for different times of day or
circumstance. A good
example of a thing that is more than the sum of its parts.
Steve Irvine
http://www.steveirvine.com
playin with dirt on mon 24 jan 05
I would attribute the Mashiko handle phenomenon more to higher percentage of
foreign potters (be it students or otherwise) rather than the leach/hamada
infuence (though i do believe it to be a factor).
way more gaijins end up in mashiko than end up in bizen, or shigaraki, or
tamba, or anywhere else that pots are big in japan. They bring with them
their previous schoolings and i think that is what adds that extra bit of
'flava' to the handles.
O.K.
(initials)
the gaijin potter
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