Nov 22

Nov 22 Mug Life

If ever you need to explain to someone the difference between objects crafted by human hands versus those manufactured by a machine, the handmade mug is a perfect place to start.

Handmade mugs fit better and feel more natural in the hand because they are made, molded, and held in the artists’ hands. The relationship between the wet clay and the ceramic artist/potter is an intimate one—not in a Demi Moore-Patrick Swayze Ghost kind of way, you saucy minx!—but in the way the wet clay moves between their fingers as they build, mold, and/or turn the clay on the potter’s wheel. Often their fingerprints are baked directly into the clay, quite literally displaying the hand of the artist. If you look closely at the mugs of Keith Hershberger and Chelsea Erdner, you will see the evidence of where their fingers held the mugs as they dipped them into their slips and glazes; leaving these marks is their homage to the handmade process, and adds meaning and significant value to their work.

Mugs by Keith Hershberger (left) and Chelsea Erdner (right) that show fingermarks made during the slipcasting process.

You will find more variety in the size, shape, and type of handles. Some potters will even have a flattened thumb rest at the top of the handle or a notch at the bottom for the ring or pinkie fingers.

Handmade mugs tend to hold heat better allowing your coffee, teas, cocoas, toddies, and hot ciders to stay warm longer. Some artists will make the tops of their mugs narrower than the bottoms to further retain heat. Womb shaped mugs are especially good at keeping beverages warm. Some potters create lids to further improve heat retention.

Handmade mugs, whether wheelthrown, hand built, or cast in molds like those made by Blake Anthony, have an inherent one-of-a-kind uniqueness that mass-manfuctured mugs do not. Much of this is due to the subtleties in the application process and firing processes (kiln-fired, raku, salt-firing…), the slips, glazes, wax resists, sgraffito carving, drawings, screens, and appliqués used, the varieties of forms and handle shapes, and types of clay bodies (porcelain, terracotta, stoneware…).

The mouthfeel of the lip of the mug is also more satisfying than that of most mass-manufactured mugs. You may develop a preference for a certain ceramic artist’s mugs because of the curve, thickness, and texture of the lip of the mug.

KASTdecor Mustache Mug feature prevents beverages from interfering with mustaches.

There are also innovative design elements ceramic artists employ to improve mug ergonomics. For instance, Tanya & Aleksander add a special inset to their mustache mugs to prevent beverages, like the whipped milk in cappuccinos, from interfering with and embellishing mustaches. Some potters will glaze their mugs white or a pale color on the interior so that it is easier to gauge the color of the beverage which is especially nice for tea drinkers who identify the quality and the duration of the tea to know when they have reached the ideal steep. Some mugs will have a carved notch to hold a tea bag in place. Others will have an exterior side “pocket” to hold a biscuit.

When you shop for the mugs below, if you happen to find that the mug is sold, please visit the artists’ shop links to see their full offerings and look at their stockist lists and exhibition schedules. Some shops, like that of Milo Berezin and Maggie King, do batch drops all at once, so look for their next shop update. Shops that launch updates like this, tend to sell out very quickly—follow them on instagram and sign up for the newsletters for shop previews, and then set an alert on your calendar so that you can be on their online shop as the update goes live for the best shot at getting what you want. For mugs coming from overseas that might have longer shipping times, remember that you can also give a printout of the mug’s shop image(s) with a note that says, “The mug is in the mail.”

Here is a collection of mugs by my personal favorite mug makers. Enjoy!