The hardest part of this build is the order of operations, and the maker has it mapped out. Weight has to come off the walls before the pebble texture goes on, because trimming is impossible once the dimples exist. So the body sits on its bat overnight, gets trimmed down, and only then is stamped. Any tool marks inside would telegraph through to the surface, which is why the interior is smoothed with a rib beforehand. That sequencing is the quiet backbone of the piece.
Everything starts with 350g of clay, wedged on a plaster slab and weighed on a digital kitchen scale. The walls are pulled up on the electric wheel and refined with a green silicone rib on a wooden bat. Then a pebble gathered in the woods beside the studio is pressed into the leather-hard walls again and again. The stamping stays loose in size and depth, giving the glaze plenty of variation to run over. Handles come from a handheld extruder with a handle-shaped die, measured with a steel ruler and lined up with a red cross-line laser level before attachment.
Glazing day has some clever touches. Wax resist goes on the foot while the cup rests on a banding wheel, letting a dent puller, basically a suction cup with a handle, carry the piece down into the glaze bucket. Three glazes are in play: Selsor Chun, Heath A2V Ivory and Floating Blue, with recipes up on glazy.org. Firing hits 1025°C for bisque, then cone six near 1200°C, following a week of slow drying.
What stands out is the judgement in the small steps. The extruded handles wait until their dryness matches the body, and that point shifts with the weather, so every batch is a fresh call. The finished cups show turquoise-green and off-white exteriors with dark blue pooling, and interiors of rings in deep blue, gray and speckled white. Old Forge Creations has made several of these before, and it reads in how unhurried the whole sequence feels.
Project by Old Forge Creations. Watch it on their YouTube channel: