How I designed mugs inspired by my personal space, from start to finish

Last September I enrolled in a year-long mentorship program with the Ceramic School. I wanted to be challenged, to push past my usual routines and comfort zone, to learn new ways of thinking about ceramics, new ways of seeing and engaging with art.

The first quarterly project was on personal space: make a piece inspired by your everyday environment.*

I had to approach this project differently than my usual play-with-clay-without-thinking method. First, I had to photograph, sketch, ruminate. My mind is typically more focused on the finished project than exploring ideas. But this was the whole point of the project and the mentorship overall: explore ideas. Push your creativity to think deeper, test and experiment more.

Below are photographs and an overview of my process of designing a mug inspired by my personal space.

*I also made a short video specifically on how Van Gogh’s work inspired the focal element and wrote a Patreon post diving a bit deeper into my love of Van Gogh’s work.

Select photos of my personal space. I seem to always be in the kitchen and always have coffee. To me, the mug is the only ceramic form that really feels like home: cozy, warm, safe.

Starry Night and Cafe Terrace at Night by Van Gogh. He’s always been a favorite and I was particularily drawn to how dynamic and energetic his work is, especially how he paints stars.

Portrait of Emilie Flöge by Gustav Klimt.

I also thought the patterns and texture in Klimt’s work is stunning and so cool. How could I weave the patterns and textures in his work with the energy I found so inspiring in Van Gogh’s paintings?

Sketches inspired by Van Gogh and Klimt. Working through ideas but not quite landing on the right design yet.

Texture explorations as well as explorations with underglaze and underglaze transfers. Getting there, but the big question remained: how to bring that sense of energy and movement to the piece?

The aha moment came when I learned a hair dye applicator filled with underglaze could create these really cool, dynamic wavy shapes.

Experimenting with using the hair dye applicator directly on the pot (left) and applying the patterns with transfers (middle, right).

Finished work!

I used rice paper to transfer the pattern all the way around the pot. Beneath is a checker pattern I handpainted directly onto the mug using a cool, sagey green slip. I finished the piece by adding black underglaze dots in different sizes.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how the final mug turned out, how the grid pattern helps the wavy lines stand out and the dots lend visual interest and tie the piece together. I also love the hair dye applicator as a tool for creating the undulating, wave-like shapes. I’ll be experimenting more with this tool in the future.

Related:

I made a short video specifically on how Van Gogh’s work inspired the wavy lines and wrote a Patreon post diving a bit deeper into my love of Van Gogh’s work.

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