Mugs, Mugs, and More Mugs...

I think I am finally starting to get the hang of making my mugs in the cylinder shape I had been planning on making them. Even though we learned how to throw cylinders last semester, I was always horrible at it and my cylinders ended up looking like flower pots. Once I started using the wooden rib to straighten out the walls of the cylinder, it made it SO much easier. I also have started to use the sponge when pulling up the walls, which has also been a game changer for me.

I am very glad that I decided to push myself into making the mugs in a cylinder shape instead of a round shape. The cylinder shape mugs seem "in" right now, and I also think they look more aesthetically pleasing. The handles are still an aspect of the mug that I am struggling with, not so much forming the handles, but suitably attaching them is difficult. I feel like my mugs are too short vertically for the handles to come out enough without looking huge while also remaining comfortable for someone to hold. I have quite a few mugs that need handles so I will do some research before attaching them tomorrow.

The design aspect is still stressing me out simply because of the slip option. In theory, I should have been practicing drawing with the slip but I got so caught up in figuring out how to throw a cylinder shape that I decided to focus solely on that. Plus I was not quite sure how to put the slip on without the tool that was in the glaze room so it kind of just slipped my mind... see what I did there? There is definitely no chance that I will have the slip design done by Wednesday, so I am not sure what exactly I will do. It is hard trying to get all of the mugs trimmed while also staying wet enough to apply slip. Clearly, time management is not a strong suit of mine.

Tomorrow my plan is to finish trimming the mugs and attach handles. Then decide on how I want to add the designs and focus on that for the rest of the week. Fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly.