December Mug of the Month Final Presentation: Staci Wolfe

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As I began this journey, I had several ideas swirling around for what my Mug of the Month design could be, but one vision kept calling me back: a soft blue mug with an antler curving gracefully around the side as its handle. At first, I thought, how hard could that be? I had done something similar before. But as I quickly learned, creating one mug like that is very different from creating twenty‑five.

Each piece brought its own challenges, teaching me patience and persistence in ways I hadn’t expected. In the beginning, I spent long hours at the wheel just trying to shape a few cylinders, but over time, my rhythm improved, I found myself “whipping out” mugs with confidence and control. The most surprising obstacle came from my home studio itself. The cold winter air and furnace drafts in my basement dried my clay unevenly, leading to cracks where the antler met the mug. My solution involved wrapping my drying rack in clear plastic and nesting the pieces in a damp box for several days, slowly easing them out to dry evenly over the course of a week.

Though my first batch of nine mugs fell victim to the unpredictable drying process, that setback became my turning point. The replacement pieces I made afterward turned out to be some of the best I’ve ever created, stronger in design, structure, and spirit.

After weeks of testing glazes, late nights in the studio, and moments of frustration mixed with discovery, the final mugs came together exactly as I had pictured them: a flowing, light blue glaze with rich movement across the surface, paired with a deep brown antler handle that wraps around the mug like a piece of the wilderness itself.

This project stretched me as an artist and reminded me how much growth comes through challenge. I’m grateful for the opportunity and proud to say I walked away from this experience with new skills, deeper appreciation, and twenty‑five finished mugs that tell the story of their making.

I hope everyone enjoys their mugs as much as I enjoyed creating them.

~Staci