Masterwork Final Mug
I am going to make a darted mug with a design from Paul Klee's The Red Balloon. I want to make a geometric, interesting handle that connects to the painting.
Construction Process
I slab built this mug, wrapping it around a gelato container, and then let it dry for a bit before darting. I made four darts so the bottom of the mug is square and the top is circular, and then I attached a base and a foot. For the handle, I made two squares, one bigger and one smaller, and a little triangle. I put the smaller square on the bottom, the bigger square on top of that, and the little triangle at the very top. I then carved the design into the mug with a needle tool and a small signing tool. After that, I waited for it to dry and then glazed it with under glaze. I used a lot of red, yellow, and green in the different shapes and pieces, and the balloon in the middle is red. I used black under glaze for the inside of the mug.
Comments and Critiques
I think that so far it has turned out really good. I haven't been able to do a final firing with clear glaze yet, but I will do that after the break. The colors came out really good, although I kind of forgot that under glazes really do not mix, because I layered some colors and hoped that they would mix and they just showed the top color. However, it still looks really good and handle feels good in my hands, which is what I like in a mug.
Paul Klee
1879 - 1940, born in Switzerland
In 1898 he went and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he graduated in 1901. He didn't have a good understanding of color theory, and used mostly black and white. Later he traveled to places like Italy and Tunisia where he developed his sense of color that is present in most of his later works. Most of his paintings are made using ideas from expressionism, cubism, futurism, surrealism, and abstraction.
