October Mug of the Month is Here: Jen Bean

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FINALLY… it’s been a longer road than initially anticipated.  What began as an assortment of ideas slowly transformed into this finished collection, which feels a bit surreal. At the final stage of the journey, I’m grateful for everything the process taught me along the way.

The process of making a collection is distinctly different from making one-off pieces for the sake of making pottery, and this experience gave me a whole new appreciation for artists who work in production. Ensuring consistency across a set, managing clay at just the right stage of dryness, and staying mentally focused through long glazing sessions pushed me in ways I hadn’t fully anticipated. Those moments of friction, though, became places of discovery where small breakthroughs brought unanticipated satisfaction.

Production

Each mug in this collection displays strong similarities, but no two are exactly alike. All of the surface designs were hand-carved without templates, and this freedom was a goal for myself, finding a balance between rigidity and disorder. To help guide the pattern, I worked with two unique tools I found in the studio, both made from shaped bullet casings, which felt like an interesting juxtaposition to the nature-inspired imagery I was carving. The casings had been individually shaped and then held together with latex to create patterns.  One formed a floral shape that helped space the blue blossoms, while the other, a small triad, was used to outline an element that transformed into something of a creature that introduced movement and a bit of whimsy to the scene. Using a glaze application that raised them from the mug surface added to the tactile composition of the raw clay, carved lines, and glossy green surface. The end result feels rooted in my original inspiration that grew into something distinctly my own.

Final Presentation

This project also reminded me how important it is for us to step back and look at our work through a variety of lenses. I spent an almost absurd amount of time testing green glazes for the foliage, so much that I started to feel cursed by the color. And yet, in the end, the glaze I chose was one I had been testing from the very beginning elsewhere in the design. Realizing that using just one green actually strengthened the overall mug design was both freeing and humbling. How was it possible that I had tried different greens on twenty other test pieces and made multiple online glaze orders, only to come back to one that I’d been using from the very beginning?!  Sometimes the scenic route is a good reminder that the long way around can teach us things the straight path never could.

Clay never offers instant gratification, and that’s part of what makes it so deeply rewarding. I’m excited to carry what I’ve learned here; about surface, repetition, and trust in the process into whatever comes next.

~ Jen