The Clay Mug

 

      Dana is one of the most creative people I know. I think she's done just about every type of art form.  One of the things that she does is she yanks me out of my comfort zone by having me try different things. Thanks to her I know how to knit and crochet (a little bit). I've attempted cardmaking, scrapbooking, and dying shirts by folding them and using powdered dye and ice.

   Several weeks ago I went to visit and found that she was working with clay. She was making stakes for her garden. After some tea and a chat, she invited me to try to make something of my own. Part of me was a little nervous. In grade school art class I made two bowls. The bowls were made by taking slabs of clay and molding them around another bowl. Then I put orange glaze on them. They turned out to be the two ugliest bowls ever made in the school district. I remembered that I had also made a tea pot and set of small no handle cups. They weren't pretty but they were not as ugly as the orange bowls. I decided to make a mug. It's something that can be used even if it doesn't turn out.

   Dana guided me through the process of making the sides of the mug first. This was the fun part. I had a rectangular shaped piece of clay to decorate as I chose. Dana has interesting tools I could use. It was fun to experiment with them. I used the tools to put random star shaped flowers on the mug. I started to make my little Sophie face that I sometimes use on letters and cards, but I got interrupted. The face only has one eye. 

   She showed me how to cut out the bottom and how to attach it to the sides of the mug. Then I had to make a handle. My mind went blank. I had no idea what sort of handle I should put on this mug. I knew that it had to a thicker handle because the body of the mug was going to be heavy and the handle had to  support it. Other than that I had no thoughts. I took the roll of clay I was going to use for the handle and put part of it inside the mug to support the seam of the sides coming together. Then I shaped it into something that I thought would work. After a bit more work smoothing things out and making sure the handle would stay on it was done. I chose a dark blue glaze.

   Several weeks later Dana visited me at work. The mug had been fired and glazed. I took a good look at it. It was a clumsy very amateurish looking piece, but it was all right. The only thing I didn't like was the handle. It stuck out like a large ear from the side of the mug. In retrospect I think it would have been better to make the handle wider and set it closer to the side of the mug. Maybe I could have taken two pieces of clay and twisted them together for the handle. Every time you make something it's a learning experience.

   One of the things that I've learned through all of these projects that Dana leads me through is that I'm more creative than I think I am. I never thought of myself as a creative person. To me creative people make things without using patterns or guides, they just see (or hear) things in their heads and do it. That's not something I do. I always have a some sort of pattern for things I make. Sitting in front of me is my mug, proving that it is possible for me to work without a pattern. I can be creative.