How those Tudor-ish mugs turned out

Some time ago, I was asked to make some Tudor compatible mugs for a family who intended to do a reenactment. I made the forms, I even glazed them and loaded them in the kiln, but then didn't fire. I hadn't got a full load, and I do like a tightly packed kiln. So they waited.

But the first ones were fine. Here they are, both with a flash and without. It's a glaze that changes quite a lot with lighting. I wonder how it will look in sunlight and by camp fire.

But in the mean time, I spent more time looking up Tudor mugs, and made a new batch with bigger feet. And higher handles. I can find examples for most shapes I like to do among Tudor mugs, but actually making them look Tudor was harder than I thought. I found some with a hint of green, which pleased me. I like my green glaze, and I felt I had permission to use it over my clear glaze.

I also dipped a few rims in my yellow glaze, which comes out anywhere from creamy white to dark orange, but rarely actually yellow. I got white. Subtle, but I think it works.

Brown is a bit classic, but still pleasing.

There was that one mug I felt I had to alter. I used all the colours from the Tudor mugs on it in my usual splashy style.

And I made some small ones, which were meant to be a joke on people who drop by and mock my large mugs, but as it turns out, they were wanted for Tudor children. So no joke.

They've been sent off to to the Tudors, except the one altered one. If any they come back, I'll have them at Cambridge Open Studios in July 2012.

Wet work

I'm back in the studio, making making making.  I'm throwing with Valentine Clays V9G at the moment. It's being very good for me. If I had more storage and drying space, I would be out there throwing still.

I have a commission for some Tudor-ish mugs to be used by a family of reenactors. The shape is already close to one I make, but the handles are higher and the footrings are bigger. At least some of the footrings are bigger.  The Tudors, sadly for them, did not bash their mugs with interestingly textured objects, though. These are smooth in the name of semi-authenticity. Except for one. I couldn't resist. It wasn't quite the right shape anyway.


I made a large selection of sizes to suit adults and small children. They're in the bisque kiln now, and will be glazed this week, so soon we will know actual volumes represented here. I'm guessing the largest is nearly a litre.

Yes, I did make way too many.







Plates of various sizes are not going to stay so very platey. I let them set up a little bit, then I faced them.

With the last batch, I was careful to approximate even spacing, whether the plate had six or eight faces. This time I mostly threw that out the window and went with random placement, which came out mostly to look as evenly spaced as the last batch. But not on this one.

Those plates in front are small. I think the little batts they're on are 5 inches square.  The ones in back are more of a meal size, but I don't know if anyone will actually be able to eat off these, what with all those faces scrutinizing the meal.

More on the lower shelf.

While I was waiting for things to dry, all out of space for more batts in the studio, I started making these small people. They're probably in the 3-6 inch range, although they will shrink when fired. They're made of ES-50 Crank clay from Valentine.  I'm going to take them to 1300C and leave them unglazed. They'll take on a nice, toasty look.  If they don't sell at Cambridge Open Studios, I'm going to bury some to confuse the archaeologists of the future.  One of them is pre-sold though, so I have moderate hopes of homes for some of the others. I've made more since this photo, so I ought to be able to get some into appreciative homes AND bury some.