Hand building a bellied, square foot mug

Hello, this is Rana from Curly's Clay Creations. A few days ago, I posted a few pictures of this mug that I made. I hand-built this. No wheel was involved. Many people asked if I used the wheel afterwards. No. It all started with the slab. So, I'm going to walk you through the steps. There are a few steps, so I'm going to try to rush through this so it's not an hour-long video. But, this is what I'll be making today. So, let me put that on the side so I don't knock it over. So, like I've said in my previous videos, everyone does things differently. I'm just here to give you some of the ideas that I use. Hopefully, you can incorporate them and use them in your clay building. So, let's get started. I'm going to be using this ruler. And, let's see. So, I measure a good, comfortable 11 inches across. It would be about there. And, I give myself some space so that I can have the lip of the mug. So, I don't want to start rolling too close to the edge. So, instead of 11 inches, I'll go probably in a couple inches. To 14 inches. 13 inches would be comfortable for me. So, about there. And, since I know how wide, or my height of my mugs, they're going to be actually 5 1⁄4 inches tall. So, just so that I know how to measure this, I'll put my rolling pin right there. And, I'll grab my other ruler to sort of just eye it out. Because, I don't want my rolling pin to move too much as I roll it. So, I'll start rolling. I'd rather do it like this than use the handles. Okay. So, that's going to be the body of the mug. Now, I also like to put a pattern on the bottom of my mug. And, as you can see over here, I left a spot for my signature. Many times, I used to do the bottoms and I'm like, where am I going to sign them, you know? So, I had to sort of come up with a way to leave a space for my signature. So, what I did is I picked up some folder dividers in clear. Which, I like to use these as templates because I can see where the pattern is when I place it down. So, I got this and I cut up little, if you want to call them, name tags out of them. And, I labeled them name because they're easy to disappear since they're clear. So, I place these on the clay approximately how much space I need for a bottom. So, let's say, I'll put them over here. And then, once those are placed, make sure I give enough room for my lip of the mug here. And, I'll roll this pin right over it. Just like that. And, I'm going to use a cookie cutter to cut those out. I'm going to make it larger than what I assume the bottom is going to be. And, I'll cut that later to fit the bottom. But, I want to prepare these and get them out of the way so I can build the mug. So, now I have the bottoms. And, I can remove this name tag. And, I'll have the perfect spot for a signature. I'm going to leave an inch lip. So, the good thing about this ruler is it has all these lines that help you measure straight. So, this line right here would be the one inch. I'm going to put that on my design, on my texture at the bottom. And, I'm going to cut there. And, same thing to the opposite side. It would help a lot better if my ruler was clean, but I could still see. Okay. I'm going to cut it. Let's do there. So, I'm going to do the 12 inches. I'll measure the 12 inches. And, thankfully with all these lines, it's easy to measure on this side. So, that would be the 12 inches. It does not look straight. Now, the height of the mug. Since the whole slab is 10 1⁄2, I know I cut down at 5 1⁄4. So, I'll make my mark there. Mark there. Now, before I start building them, I'm going to bevel the edges so that I get a clean seam. Also, I had some people ask me, where is the seam on your mug? So, I do have a seam. So, the majority of it is seamless, except for that one right there. It does show, barely, depending on how careful you connect the seams, but there is a seam. And, I use this tool to cut my beveled edges. And, for video's sake, I'm just going to be making one mug. So, we'll take this slab. I'm going to go ahead and score the ends. And, for those who want to know, this one, it's a great tool. Good scoring for a large area. Apply some slip. And, carefully attach. I'm very gentle with my clay. A lot of people say they can't keep the pattern on the mug clean. But, I don't know. I've never really had much of a problem. I'm very gentle when I work with it. So, what I usually do, is I just mist it with a tiny bit of water. Just so I can get a clean glide when I use my rubber rib. And, I hold the outside, and I smooth the inside walls. And then, I do eye this out. You can measure it if you aren't comfortable with doing it. But, I go ahead and grab a ruler, and I sort of center it, and I make tiny marks at the bottom of the mug. And then, I cross it, center it again, and make the little marks again. So, now I have the 12, the 6, the 9, and the 3. And now, I want to bring in the bottom of the mug, as you can see over here. So, I made this little tool, also out of my folder dividers, with triangles. So, I cut different sized triangles, depending on how far you want the mug to fold in. So, if you want it to fold in a lot, and have a smaller gap in the center, you would do the one, and I would do the one and a half inch. You can make these, you know, whatever size you'd like. Or, you can even just cut them out without using a template. Typically, that's what I do, but for the sake of the video, I'm going to be using the template to make things easier. So, now that I've marked four corners, and to make my life easier, I'm going to go ahead and eye out the center point of these arrows, of these triangles. So, what I'm going to do, let's see, I'm going to use the one inch. So, what you do is, the dot that I just put in the center, with the line across, is going to be right at the rim of the cup, and the point is going to meet the point that I made on the mug. So, it'll be like that. I don't want to lift up my mug, I'm assuming you can tell what I mean. I don't want to lift up the mug, because I don't want to ruin the roundness. But, I go ahead and do that, and what I do is, I bevel cut this corner out. And, you're going to bevel outward. So, I'm going to try to do this backwards to show you, but instead of beveling inward, towards the triangle, you're bevel cutting outward. So, it'll be like that. And, you're going to do that on both sides. You're going to bevel cut out, and down, to cut out the triangle. So, I'm going to go ahead and do that. Once I have that done, I get my scoring tool, and I score the little beveled edges. Apply some slip, and I start bringing them together to meet. And, I slowly and gently bring the seams together. As you can see, they fit perfectly together and form a square on the top. And, now you have this shape. Since these seams, I want to reinforce these seams, and to fill them in on the inside, like I did here to give me a cleaner inside. You can barely see those corner seams. So, in order to do that, it's easier to do it now than later, because if you wait until later, you're going to have to actually stuff your hand in the mug with your fingers, and it can get messy and ruin the shape of your mug. So, I'm going to just place that away for a minute, and I'll get some excess clay that I have from that same clay body. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to roll a super thin snake coil to sort of place in the corners of the bottom of the mug, so that I can smooth them in once I flip it over. So, it's easier to just place them right there, since it's close to the top. So, that's what I'm about to do. So, with that there, I'm going to go ahead and attach my bottom before I flip it. So, go ahead and extra score the bottom. Since it's a little bit slanted, I score it enough where it's flat, and it'll fit perfectly on the bottom. So, as you can see, I'm sort of taking off that little curve right there, so it sits flat. And I trace it so I can score it correctly. I'm going to use my thinner scoring tool for this one, and I will cut that to fit once it's a little firmer. So, I'm just going to keep that there for support. Flip the mug. And now, to see the inside, you can see how I put those coils in the corners. I'm going to go ahead and clean those out. There's extra slip on the edges over there, so I like to clean that out also. I use this. It's called, this brush is Crafter's Choice R9113. It's a lifesaver. It's a hard, well, not hard, but a firm bristle brush, and it's thick enough for me to sort of get the edges and the inside of the mug smooth, and it's tough enough to actually do the job. So, I just spray a little bit of water in there, and I get the tool, and I'm just smoothing out the bottom where some of the slip is still in. And now, I use this tool with the curved end, and I sort of just brush up on those coils until they're as flat as I want them to be. So now, what I do here, you could wait. I'm just doing it all in one step for the sake of video. I'm going to go ahead and just hold my fingers on the corner while I do that. So, I'm going to hold it like this to keep it in place as I smooth out the coil on the inside. It doesn't have to be perfect. You can always go back and fix it with a sponge or this paintbrush that I'm telling you about. Alright, that's good for now. I'll go in and fix that later. There you go. Okay, since the body of the mug still just stands up tall like a cylinder, I'm going to go ahead and mist the inside walls just slightly, because I'm going to start bellying it out, and the water allows my fingers to glide and sort of stick to the inside of the clay. So, to belly it out even, I use my hands. I use the natural curve of my hand on the outside. And then I bring my fingers, and I sort of constantly place my hand in the same position on the outside of the mug as I'm bellying it out with my fingers. So, I'm going to start here. And you have to watch out for the seam. Once you get to the seam, hopefully you've waited and let it harden up a little bit before you do this. So, be careful at the seam, and you'll see how I do that when I get to it. So, I'm just curving the outside from the inside. And I'm following the pattern of my palm. So, you get that roundness there. So, it's already coming to life. And I do that throughout the mug to get an even, round shape to it. Okay, so now at the seam, I push it out, but I make sure I put a little bit more pressure at the seam so it doesn't bust. And then I just keep going. Now you've got a rounded bottom. So, depending on how far you want it to come out, just go over it. Do it in stages. Don't force out a big belly all at once. I'd say go slowly so that you don't bust through it, and you don't want to affect the outside pattern too much from stretching it. So, I think that's good right there. I like that shape. So, I'm going to keep that like that. So, now for the lip, I'm going to give it a curved drinking lip. Same way I did with this one. So, it's not standing straight up. It actually comes out a little bit. So, with this one, I'm going to get a sponge. I'll wet it a little. And for the rim, same thing. I use my hand, and I place it right below the lip. So, I'm going to use that as a guide. So, as I'm getting the sponge, I'm going to be pushing outwards and downwards at the same time to sort of roll around my finger as I turn the mug around. So, let me show you. So, I'll go like this, and you see how I'm bringing it in and out. Make sure you try to keep your finger at the same spot on the outside of the mug to get an even lip. There's the seam. Just be careful around there. I sort of overlooked it, but just watch out for it. And I'll just smooth out the edge. I can always go back and do that as it dries up a little bit more. But now you've got the body and the lip pretty much good. Alright, I'm going to put this aside now, and I'm going to make the handle for it. With the little curve on the bottom of this handle, it doesn't always work for me because my clay tends to dry up too quick and it starts cracking. So, make sure if you really want that to keep your clay really moist, and hopefully it works during the video. So, now that I have that shape, where it's thicker on the top and thinner on the bottom, I'm just going to lay it. I'm going to get the same rolling pin and just slightly roll over the coil. Before it starts to harden, I'm going to go ahead and give it the fake shape. I have probably a lot to roll on the bottom, so I want to make sure that stays wet. And as I'm doing it, I'm sort of compressing the clay on the outside to give it that curl slowly so I don't get any cracks. Hopefully, I don't get any cracks. Or maybe I'll even keep it a large coil like that. Now, at the top part of the handle, I bevel this out. So, I want enough space so that it holds enough of the mug. I don't want to give it too short of a spot to connect it to, so I need the support. So, I'll bevel it out like this, so I'll have all that spot right there. I really should wait for this mug to dry. As some of you know, I'm very impatient. And I'll use the excuse that it's on video, and that's why I'm rushing through this. But there is magic of video. I could always pause it and come back to it. I'm just going to go ahead and eye this out to see if it's the right size. I like that round part on the bottom. I don't know if I want to tighten it. I'd rather it not crack on me. So, I put it right below the lip, and it'll attach there. So, where the seam is, you can place the handle anywhere you want. I don't want to put it on the seam because it's too weak right now. And I don't want it to be too obvious, so I'm going to go ahead and put it on this edge. You can put it wherever you want. Hold it from the inside and lightly put pressure to bind them. And it looks good. So, there's that. Now, for the bottom, I'm not going to do that. But what I do is, once it's about leather hard, I come back and I trim right outside of the bottom of the mug. Not directly straight to it. So, I just trim the edges off, squared. And what I do is, I bring the edges up and pinch them up against the mug. You can do that with this if you want. Or you can make it square. Or you can just leave it whole like this and make it look like it's on a coaster. That's up to you. So, that's what I'm going to do once it's dry. And this is what it would look like at the bottom once you do that. So, what I did is, I cut the square a little bit larger than the bottom. So, it was about maybe a quarter of an inch or so. And I went with my finger and just sort of pushed the clay in and up towards the mug. And that gives it a little bit more of a support also to hold the bottom to the mug. And clean out the inside. Sponged out the rim. And this is just about bone dry, so it'll be going in the kiln in the next few days. So, hopefully you've enjoyed that tutorial. And I can't wait to see what you guys all come up with. And tag me in your posts. I'd love to see them. And if you love the video, please share it. There you go. It was my pleasure.