The RK mug exchange this April will have a theme: APRIL SHOWERS
I had the idea about doing a mug that was tall and thin.
Rethinking, with the theme, I decided not to go too tall. I had a flash that is not my typical style. I could see narrow mugs with raindrops on them. I scored vertical lines on the cylinders to look like rain. Then I added the "drops" by rolling tiny balls of soft clay in my fingers. Starting at the bottom of the mug, scoring and wetting little scratches in the clay where I wanted the drops to be, I pressed them onto the clay and wiped the tail upward to form the drop.
Then I thought an umbrella might be kind of appropriate so I decided to make umbrella lids for the mugs. I threw little lids. Then I added small coils on the trimmed tops to represent the umbrella ribs and put a knob on top.
They were bisque fired and ready to glaze. We have a glaze called Shiny Blue Brown. It is a deep blue but will break into a brown line on a raised area. My thought was to have a dark blue umbrella with brown ribs.........we'll see!
I put three different colorants on the raindrops. At random, I painted some with a medium shiny blue called Leach's Blue. Others I painted with two different blue slips. The first is called Hamada Slip: 1 part Cobalt Oxide, 1 part Yellow Ochre. Second is Stewart's Light Blue to Magic Line Coloring Agent: 1 part Cobalt Oxide, 4 parts Rutile.
Then I glazed the whole mug in a light blue, hoping the blues on the raindrops would show through in different shades of blue.
I will fire the lids and mugs separately because I want the mug rims completely glazed. If the lids were fired on the mugs the rims would have to remain glaze free so the lids with unglazed undersides would not melt together permanently.
They will be fired in two days. Stay tuned to see the finished product. Opening a fired kiln is like Christmas! Nearly everything that comes out is a surprise. Glazes have a life of their own and a lot of the time you are expecting something a little different than the finished product. Luckily, it's almost always a treat!
Well, they turned out pretty fun. Little RAINY DAY MUGS with lids. They should keep your hot tea warm on a rainy spring day!