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Critique My Work - Anyone? - Round 2 Mugs!


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my bowls have minor glaze defects. I am fine eating out of them because they pinholes don't hit the clay body at all, and even then im not sure if it matters, but I am not sure if others will want to use them to eat out of. i have been working to fix my glaze firings adamantly getting very close to fixed.

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I guess I am looking in late, but a couple of things I would recommend changing are the thickness of the bottom so you can trim the inside of the foot.  The reason I recommend this is that with extra thickness you can start to parallel the inside curvature a bit better.  To me the trimming of the inside of the foot looked a little flat from the pictures.  Since you like a narrow foot, leaving a lot more clay can allow you to get a more narrow shape in the foot, whilst increasing the apparent height (Google Lucie Rie and you will see what I mean.)  In your comment about one more pull to narrow in the bottom wall near the foot, I usually leave it to support the wall while throwing and trim it to my liking at leatherhard.  An alternate is to leave for a while to let the clay firm up before you continue, or use a heat gun to speed that up.

 

As Pres suggested, leave the rim thicker, even during the rest of the pulling, because you can thin it out if needed. You don't want a taper in the wall starting at the foot going all the way up the wall to the rim.  Nice and even is what you are looking for.

 

Compliments I wish to add are that your lines are very pleasing, and I do not see the "potter's hump" transition inside where you go from supported bottom to unsupported.  That is a common problem when learning to throw bowls.  Keep up the good work!

 

John

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  • 3 months later...

Here is an update to what I am currently working on. Here are a few mugs I recently made, if anyone is bored at home or work and wants to give me some critique I would love it. I am mostly looking to improve my shape and thickness. These were the first handles I have actually fired. 

 

I was working on a soup mug type idea for my sister in law for Christmas. She wants a set of 4. These ended up a little small for a soup mug, but I cooked them anyways. Probably a decent coffee cup.

 

http://s1183.photobucket.com/user/josephrosenblatt/library/Handles

 

Here is the gallery of mugs, the bonedry mug is the one in black, I took it earlier to show the smoothing on my joints. 

 

Any advice greatly appreciated as I am 100% self taught with practice and just watching videos online.

 

Joseph

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I really like the white one in the last row, bottom left ... looks like it has a lovely balance to it and a great glaze job.

 

On some the handle is too small ... you should not have to use two hands to hold a mug and others are a bit thick.

That said, I think you are going in a very nice direction with them and a bigger size of that shape would be wonderful for soup.

 

Give your sister in law an I.O. U. for Christmas and keep working on her set ... she will love them.

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Thanks for the advice and kind words. I still am getting used to how much things shrink. When I make stuff I look at it like its the finished size, only later after it dries I panic and go NOOOOOOOO. But I am trying to get better, and I totally agree that some of the handles are a bit thick, when I made them I felt that way as well. But I kept them on and glazed them anyways. I figure if I never finish anything I wont know what to improve. I scrap and rebuild so many pots I rarely run my kiln because of it.

 

Looking at my handles I like the distance that I come out from the mug, but I think I need to bring the handle to the bottom of the mug instead of the middle bottom of the mug, this way there is more room to hold it. I filled them with liquid and they dont feel that good to hold. 

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I like the small "donut-shaped" handles, and find that shape very comfortable with one finger through the handle, remaining fingers supporting the weight of the cup from underneath the handle. I also think the donut works well with the shape of the cup. I'm not sure the "ear-shaped" handles necessarily make sense on a short and wide cup. They look better on a taller cup. The ones that look best among your mugs are the smaller ear-shaped handles, because they are closer in shape and proportion of the donut-shaped handles. Regardless, I'd like to see more taper on the ear-shaped handles. I like the thickness at the top, but they should taper down to be thinner and flatter at the bottom.

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I like the small "donut-shaped" handles, and find that shape very comfortable with one finger through the handle, remaining fingers supporting the weight of the cup from underneath the handle. I also think the donut works well with the shape of the cup. I'm not sure the "ear-shaped" handles necessarily make sense on a short and wide cup. They look better on a taller cup. The ones that look best among your mugs are the smaller ear-shaped handles, because they are closer in shape and proportion of the donut-shaped handles. Regardless, I'd like to see more taper on the ear-shaped handles. I like the thickness at the top, but they should taper down to be thinner and flatter at the bottom.

 

Thank you very much for your advice. I will work on improving the taper. I love your work and look at it constantly.

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I like them all, everything looks a little thick but improving that will come with practise. I remember the first coffee mug I made came out the right size for an espresso  :mellow:

 

Also RE soup mugs, I would have thought they are more of a two handed mug anyway.

 

Thanks for kind words.  I eat soup out of a bowl, never understood eating soup out of a mug, but hey gotta try it all.  :blink:

 

I threw some new mugs last night, less thick!

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While I do agree, some of the handles are a bit big, your work is VERY clean. It has smooth, flowing lines and is aesthetically very pleasing.

 

In regards to using a mug for soup, I make my mugs, so they are multi-purpose; coffee/ hot cocoa, soup, ice cream, cereal, etc.

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Grype, I think you're really brave to put up your work and videos for critique. I've been a huge fan of Hsin Chuen Lin's videos, so when I moved to the bay area - I actually signed up for one of the classes he teaches! Was pretty amazing :) I also admire the fact that you are able to scrap or cut through so many of your pots. Whenever I have a pot that I feel I've made significant progress with..I find it so hard to cut it in half!

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RaiV, thanks for the nice words. The only way to improve is to fail and learn from mistakes. My father installed that in me when I was a young man and I am installing it in my son. I don't have anyone to really go to for advice on pottery so I turn to you all my peers with years and years of skills. I really appreciate the people of this community taking time to tell me what they think about my pots. I will continue to take that advice and maybe after years and years become a decent potter.

 

Hisn Chuen Lin is a pretty amazing instructor, although he doesn't talk much in his videos, he shows his hands very well and I was able to go from there. I would love to be able to attend one of his classes and I am glad you enjoyed yours so much.

 

I find, if I cut a pretty pot in half, I just make a better one the next time. It allows me to see the mistakes hidden inside the pot. I have been potting for a little under 8 months or so. I have probably ran my kiln a total of 10-12 times. I am still very dissatisfied with my commercial glazes, mixing my own glazes is my next goal I think in ceramics. I really want to only have 2-3 glazes that I use that I am extremely happy with. 

 

I really like solid color glazes that are semi matt, for example:  http://mushimeganebooks.com/works 

I also really like the look of these pots : http://hashimotoshinobu.com/works

 

Right now my favorite glazes are probably the celadon's from amaco, they mix nicely to create any color I want, and they do extremely well on the clay I use. I can't seem to find a matte glaze that I like so far. 

 

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I will keep updating this post again. I just started working with porcelain so I will post that stuff probably next week. Got a few new mugs in the making. The reason I like doing this all in one thread, is I once read a thread about a person who started drawing. He updated the thread for over 10 years, from his first drawings to his current work. The guy is now a famous artist and draws and paints for a living. Having his journey documented with others helping him along the way was pretty awesome to read through.

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RiaV, I never get tired of hearing the gasps, and exclamations of, "what are you doing?!!!" from my students, when I cut my wheel demo pieces in half. To them, they see it as a lot of work, and a waste of time. I tell them, it was simply good practice, both for throwing, and teaching how to throw. They start to understand a bit, once they start throwing , and have to scrap few pieces.

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I suggest a larger diameter foot and more defined on your bowl.Thats the pnly image I viewed.

I worked for 1 year on my mentees pottery feet until she owned her own foot style.

This process takes time and lots of work.

The net is a poor place I feel for Critique

But you asked for it.

Mark

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Quick update: http://s1183.photobucket.com/user/josephrosenblatt/library/Handles/After%201st%20round%20of%20reviews

 

This is the only mug I fired in my most recent firing. I just had some other stuff sitting around I wanted to get finished, but I tried to take everyone's critique into mind when I put on this handle. Much thinner, the handle thins from the top to the bottom, it made it closer into the mug, but also plenty of room for 2-3 fingers depending on size of hands. I personally think the handle fits the mug pretty well.

 

Thanks for all your help. 

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That looks beautiful! I like the tapering of the handle and the fact that you left it white. I sometimes forget that the clay body is beautiful on its own. I put a vase on the glaze shelf this week which has a portion on the outside that is intentionally left unglazed. Fingers crossed that the result is at least in some way similar to how I've imagined it!

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