In an effort to better utilized cabinet space, I’ve modified my original porcelain tea cup design with bases that allow the cups to be stacked. These cups also have a wider band of clear glaze at the lip for easier cleaning. It’s also been fun to experiment with some new tessellation stamps. My next project will be designing a mug with an integral handle. I’ve got some ideas on paper – looking forward to seeing if they’ll work in clay.

A few weeks ago I started working on a series of stackable cups. After experimenting with the simple geometric and more complex tessellation stamps I made last year I thought it was time to get back into doing some figurative work.  I decided to translate my tessellation tiles into stamps. I’ve considered doing this for a long time but resisted because I thought it would be too hard to carve enough detail into the stamps to read well (the stamps are about the size of a quarter). Thankfully, carving detail wasn’t a problem. Whether or not they’ll read well (in reverse) when pressed into the slabs remains to be seen. Fingers crossed.

My first set of porcelain cups came out of the kiln today. They’re 3 1/2″ high, 3 1/2″ in diameter, and hold 12 ounces of liquid. Like the “prototype” I wrote about in my last post, they’re glazed on the inside and lip but the exterior surface has been left unglazed. I’ve been using the prototype every morning for my coffee and I love the way it feels in my hand – I definitely won’t put handles on theses!

Since building the slab roller, I bought a book titled 500 Cups. It’s inspired me to try a variety of shapes, textures, and glazes. This simple porcelain cup is my favorite so far. It’s about 4 inches tall and glazed with clear on the inside only. I think the stamped pieces express the softness of clay especially when left unglazed.

I’ve been pondering the idea of buying a slab roller. The problem is they seem really overpriced. So, today I came up with a simple design and built one. It’s essentially a wooden “track” with a removable canvas-covered board, a large rolling pin, and several pairs of sticks. It allows me to roll out consistent, smooth slabs in a range of thicknesses, very quickly.

These are some of the recently fired stamped vessels finished with a clear low-fire glaze. I went with a clear glaze because I really wanted to emphasize the surface texture.