These were made before I started using the cuerda seca glaze technique I use now.
This is my favorite mug. I made it over twenty years ago. I was getting divorced; I was grumpy, my husband was following me around, and I felt my world had gotten very small. So I put my angry face around this mug. I made several of them and gave them as Christmas gifts to my family that year. But I kept this one for myself.
Until, I gave it to my new boyfriend JB, now husband, in an absurd mood of new love and generosity. Almost instantly, I regretted it. That week I made a few more, and the next time I went to visit, I switched the mug out. He never noticed. This post is a love story about a cup.
My favorite angry face.
It was a time of sadness and confusion.
Once I took it to a show with me. On the last day, I left it at a diner after breakfast. When I realized what I'd done, I called the restaurant and asked about it. It seems a waitress fell in love with it as well and took it home. I got her number and called to ask for it back. When it didn't arrive in the mail, I called her back, gave her a guilt trip, and then said, "Please don't just throw it in a box and mail it. Pack it, so it doesn't break." I could sense how conflicted she was and didn't want her to take the position of "if I can't have it, nobody can." A few days later, it arrived, and I experienced an enormous sense of relief. My baby was home.
Why do we get so attached to an object? What makes an object lovable? The function is part of it, and that's easy to describe. In a mug, it's how it feels in my hands, to my mouth, and the amount it holds. But it's also a bit magic and history. The mug takes me back to my Beaufort days, a time of great happiness that ended in conflict and moved me to Asheville. The magic bit comes with being well made. How nicely balanced the cup feels when it's full of liquid, how the thickness of the clay turns the heat of the coffee into the warmth of your hands, and how perfectly the faces portray the hurt, anger, and confusion of the time. But let's end on a happy note.
Mug by Ronan Peterson. The colorful bottom makes it perfect for zoom calls.
This is my other favorite mug. I like to commemorate trips with things that will bring me back to them. Last year my husband and I did a part of the Barn Quilt Trail. He was an ace driver, helping me locate and then circling back to take pictures of the quilt blocks. While in Bakersville, I visited some galleries, thinking of buying him a thank you gift. Attracted by its color, I picked this one up, and while looking around at other mugs, I just fell in love with its weight and feel. The icing on the cake was its colorful bottom. We were all doing Zoom calls, and I thought this one would add a little pizzazz to the tediousness of it all. My husband got one too.
New mugs from the kiln gods, two sizes 12 and 10 oz.