I have decided to set myself a challenge and the title of this post is probably a bit of a clue.
I want to make one hundred mugs in one hundred days.
I think that I will start off handbuilding these mugs but I will allow myself to cast or throw some as well if the mood takes me.
My handles will be pulled, or coiled or carved, I have no idea what will really happen until I start, because as those of you who know me, know I think by doing.
My 100 days will be work days, not 100 days in a row because of my weekend market commitments. Plus it makes sense to set myself a challenge that I can actually achieve without worrying that I missed Sunday’s pots because I was too busy or too tired.
On each Friday, I will line up my five mugs for the week and I will photograph them and post the image here, as well as onto instagram with a suitable hashtag, probably #100mugsin100days. At the end of the 100 days I will fire them all and who knows what will happen then. Who knows internet, who knows.
I am quite taken with this form at the moment and it will be an interesting challenge to build on this form as well as to find a handle that works, that compliments without dominating.
This challenge of mine is loosely inspired by Neil Celani and at the end of it I will celebrate by buying myself one of his t-shirts, A mug life.
As I was plotting the finer details of my plan with Veronica yesterday, I realised that I was looking forward to documenting the progress of my 100 mugs and seeing where the process takes me.
As a student in 2006 I learned to pull handles at the wheel and spent quite some time with them, before deciding that my time at TAFE was too short to mess about with handles, when there was so much more knowledge to be absorbed. I pulled what felt like zillions of them, I attached them, and I ultimately dismissed them, because my students skills were not up to my personal aesthetic.
I am confident in my skill set these days, I have settled into my potters skin and most importantly I am much kinder to myself.
Anyone that wants to join in with me is more than welcome.
It should be fun.
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My fingers itch to cradle that form. To make a handle which adds and doesn’t detract from its organic shape will be challenging.
Good luck.
Yes, I think it will be a challenge. But Fun. AND it wont be this exact pot as I have already bisqued this one, but a similar pot.
good to challenge yourself now and then… I’m looking forward to following your progress 🙂
I will love watching where you take this creative challenge and I’m going to think very hard about doing it too – I just need to work out when 100 days is up!