Hey there and welcome back to my channel, Blue Nose Trading. My name is Tori Solis, and today I am working on a series of thumblers. Thumb tumblers? Dimple cups? You know, those cups with the nice spot that you put your thumb for grip when you hold them. They are one of my favorite types of cups to use. The grip that you get from that thumb intent is so comfortable.
I am making about, maybe I think hopefully maybe, 30 of these using my studio reclaim. My studio reclaim for these is a mix of about maybe 6 or so different cone 6 clays. Just off the top of my head, I know this bucket has Trinity white stoneware, Trinity terracotta, Trinity spectacular and Trinity loca mocha, and some Laguna speckled buff, and probably a little bit of Amaco buff No. 46 as well. I know it is going to have speckles, and it's probably going to be be some sort of brown-ish color of clay. After wedging the reclaim, I measured these out into balls that weighed 1lb 4oz each. The clay was really soft, which is kind of normal for reclaim. And that was good and bad. It was super easy to center, but it really couldn’t take a whole lot of water while I was throwing, or abuse, so I did end up flopping a couple of these pieces in the process.
When throwing these, I was trying really hard to throw a shape I wanted on the wheel, so that I didn’t need to trim as much later. I would say I did alright, with definite room for improvement. One of the trickiest parts of making these was getting the rims perfectly round again after adding the thumb impression. I opted for compressing the rim with a shammy after adding the dimple. For the most part it worked out pretty well, but a few still reverted back to their not perfectly round state in the firing. Which annoyed me personally, but so far, most people have found it endearing. I guess that goes to show that we are going to be our harshest critics most of the time.
When I started this project, I wanted to try to make a lot of the same thing. This was a personal test for myself to see how quickly I could produce this many pieces. The shape I was going for was slightly variable. I haven’t made a ton of these prior to this, so I was experimenting with a few different form ideas to see what felt best in the end in your hand. So there are slight variations of width and height in these, and that makes it to where the cup shape kind of can fit into any hand. Walking up and picking these up until you find the one that feels just right for your hand has really added to the in-person experience for these thumblers.
The trimming on these was very minimal. I wanted the bottoms to be rounded out and then flat. For most of my mugs and other forms, I usually give it a foot ring, but I felt like trying something different here. A lot of potter friends make these smooth, flat bottoms in their work, and I felt that for this particular form that was a pretty interesting design choice. So I went with just the flat bottom with the name stamp in the bottom. But I'm probably going to keep putting foot rings onto most of my other forms. I don't think it's going to be a habit, it was just a choice for this particular series of work. It really just depends, but I do like how these turned out with flat bottoms.
After the bisque, when these were ready for glaze. I glazed most of these with Mayco Stroke and Coat glazes. I had quite a few colors, so I decided to make two of each color to see how they turned out. The inside of these are a bunch of the cream breaking rust. Which has become part of my mainline glazes for me. These all have a little bit of variation because I was experimenting with how much red iron oxide I wanted to put in my cream breaking rust, so I had like probably six offhand jars of different cream breaking rust with the slightest variations of iron oxide in them. I used that as the line for these. So they are maybe a little different. But it's really nice. I mean they are mostly consistent and they are for the market, not a custom order so it's all good.
I was aiming to create a sensory experience of differences between smooth and gritty. After firing I did lightly sand down all of the parts of the cups that weren’t glazed with a diamond sanding pad. I wanted the raw parts to feel slightly gritty when compared to the glossy surface of the glazed parts, but not rough and unappealing to touch that you don't want to hold the cup. That's not the goal. It has to be just a little bit rough, but smooth enough to be nice. Only the inside, and the thumb dimple are the only places I glazed these. The inside is glazed for ease of cleaning. I glazed the dimple in a circle for a few reasons. First off, it's stylish and fantastic. Second, I wanted the thumb indent to be a smooth spot you can rub your finger over while you contemplate the meanings of existence over a beverage.
These thumblers are perfect wine glasses. I personally like to use the one I kept for myself to drink fancy apple juice, but I have gotten feedback these are great for wine. I imagine they are also really great for tea, water, or any manner of beverages, because they are cups. But you know, cups.
When all was said and done, I ended up with about 40 thumblers. Which honestly doesn’t feel like as many as it felt like when I was making them. These are going to be the base of my stock for my holiday market booth this season. I am really excited to see how people react when they are picking them up to find the most comfortable fit for their hand. I am also hoping to get a lot of feedback on what shapes people tend to enjoy most, so I can work towards tightening up my form for these into something a little more consistent.
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Remember to drink lots of water, talk frequently to the people closest to you and go for a walk when you can. I will see you guys next week.
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