How To Make A Pottery Mug – Step-By-Step Guide

If you want to make your own pottery mugs, you have come to the right place.

In this article, I’ll go over all the steps needed to turn a pile of clay into a beautiful handmade mug.

Let’s get started!

1. Prepare your clay

The first step in creating a piece of pottery is to wedge the clay. This process involves folding and spiraling the clay to remove any air pockets and make it completely homogenous. This is important for when throwing on the wheel.

Then divide the clay into 300-gram lumps, which is roughly enough to make a mug. Each ball of clay is then given another quick wedge two at a time to bring together the weighed out pieces and create a shape that’s easier to center. For anything larger than 300 grams, spiral wedge each piece individually.

Wrap the clay in plastic after wedging, wrap each piece of clay in plastic. This helps to keep the clay soft and prevents it from drying out.

Remember, the wedging process is fundamental to creating pottery. It’s a process that needs to be done well, and it’s a fundamental skill to learn.

You can learn more in my article on wedging clay.

2. Throw the clay

Firmly throw a ball of clay into the center of the wheel and spend a few moments centering and coning it up and down. Use wetted fingers to push down in the middle, open it up, and form the base. Keep your arms and hands steady by leaning your upper body weight onto your arms and bracing your arms on the plastic of the wheel tray.

Reach inside the clay and pinch from the base, then gradually pull the clay up until you reach the right hight and shape. Keep the clay and your hands wet throughout this process to prevent the clay from sticking and going off center.

Once you have the shape right, remove the skirt of clay around the base using a blunted turning tool and remove excess water from inside the mug with a sponge on a stick.

Scrape off the outside to removing the slip and neatening up the form. Smooth off the sharp rim with a chamois leather, and drag a twisted wire underneath to separate the mug from the wheel.

Pro tip: use a mirror to see the side view of the pot without having to lean back awkwardly. This helps you to see the form of the part you’re throwing.

3. Drying the clay

Once you have achieved the right size and shape, you can set the clay mugs aside and let them dry in a well ventilated space.

The walls of the mugs will normally be leather dry after one night. But the base is a lot thicker and takes a while long.

After drying for one night, flip the mugs over onto their rims and set them aside again until they are completely leather hard.

4. Trimming the mugs

Place one of the leather hard mugs on your pottery wheel and center it. Once it’s in the right position, you can tape it in place with some clay.

While turning the wheel, use a tungsten carbide turning tool to trim the mug. This will create a thinner and lighter form and neaten up the shape. How much you want to trim is up to your preference.

Trim a beveled edge onto the bottom corner of the mug to create a base that is less susceptible to being chipped. You can also trim the base to remove any wiring off marks that were left over from removing it from the wheel before. Match the smoothness of the base to that of the walls.

Once you are done trimming, you can use your maker’s mark (if you have one) to carve your signature into the clay.

Do all the processes in batches. Do all the throwing, then all the trimming, then all the handles, and finally all the cleanup.

5. Pulling handle blanks

Start by preparing a larger block of clay. Grip the top of the lump and pull the excess clay down its length. Gradually thin out the clay and make sure to keep your hand wet throughout the process to prevent it from drying.

The length of clay you just pulled will become the handle blanks. Cut the length of clay against a sharp edge of a table or board with your thumb. Make sure they are the correct length and thickness. Place them close to each other and stack them together. Wrap them with plastic and spray with water to keep them moist.

Pull the handles with a delicate touch. It’s okay if they are slightly different from each other but try to aim for the same length for each handle.

Pulled handles require a lot of practice to perfect. Initially, it might be difficult, but with practice, it becomes easier. Practice pulling the handles until you get the desired results.

6. Attaching the handle

Take a leather-hard mug and score an area where the handle will join at the top, and dab a little bit of slip onto that area.

Take one of the handle blanks and tap out one of the ends. During this process, make sure that your hand is grasping the handle blank and isn’t doing so too firmly. You just want to create a flare of clay which you’ll easily be able to blend into the mug.

Firmly push the handle blank against the mug, making sure that you have two fingers inside opposite of the area where the pressure is being applied. This just supports it and stops the wall from potentially bending.

Once firmly attached, pick the mug up and begin to blend in that clay. This is where having soft clay helps as it is very malleable and you don’t have to use a lot of pressure to make a nice smooth even join. Whereas, if the handle blank is too firm, the amount of pressure you have to use can actually end up distorting the wall of the mug itself.

Use your hand to ladle on lots of slip to blend in the handle and create a seamless transition between the handle and the mug.

Repeat this process on the other side of the mug with another handle blank.

Leave the mug to dry slowly and evenly before firing it in a kiln.

7. Pulling the handle

Use your hand to ladle on lots of water onto the handle blank and begin to pull the handle. Make sure to not only pull in one orientation, but move the position of your hand to keep the cross-section of the handle even.

Use the tip of your thumb to pull in three grooves into the back of the handle to thin out the length and create interesting marks for glazes to interact with.

Once the handle is the right length and width, carefully hold it by the end and loop it downwards to join near the base. Check it from a few different orientations to make sure it’s straight, then use your finger to snip away excess handle on the base.

Smooth off the bottom join with just one finger by smearing the clay left and right very firmly. This makes a strong join and eliminates the need to score and slip before attaching it.

Use a wetted finger to smooth over any finger marks and create a seamless join as possible.

8. Cleaning and last check

Trim the bottom edge of each mug to remove any smeared clay and give it a quick burnish for a pristine finish.

Then place the mugs onto a plastic-wrapped board with the other mugs and let them dry out for a couple of days slowly and evenly. This will prevent cracks from occurring around the handle joints.

9. Bisque firing

After drying for roughly a week, the mugs should be completely bone dry and ready for bisque firing.

Pack the bone dry pottery parts into the electric kiln, trying to fit in as much as possible. The pots can touch one another, since the temperature they’re going to isn’t hot enough to fuse any of the clay.

Close and lock up the kiln, then turn the power on. Set the controller to the right firing program. The temperature mainly depends on the type of clay you are working with.

You can run an electric kiln overnight. But if you are using a gas kiln, you need to check up on it on a regular basis.

Once the firing is complete, wait a few days for the kiln to cool down before unpacking the pottery.

Bisque firing the pottery makes it much stronger and absorbent, preparing it for the glazing process.

10. Applying wax to the base

Dilute the wax emulsion with boiling water to make it smoother when applying to the mug.

Then apply a thin layer of wax emulsion to the base of each mug using a brush. Be sure to cover the entire surface. Apply a little extra wax to your maker’s mark to ensure it’s completely sealed.

The layer of wax acts as a simple wax resist, preventing glaze absorption into the base of the mug.

If the base of the mug was covered in glaze, it could fuse to the kiln shelves during firing. This would damage both the mug and the kiln shelves.

By waxing the base of each mug, you ensure that the glaze only adheres to the intended surface of the mug, preventing any damage to the kiln shelves and preserving the quality of your work.

11. Applying the glaze

Grasp the mug tightly with a pair of tongs and submerge the mug into the bucket of glaze for about 5-6 seconds.

Then steadily hold the mug in one place, let all the excess drain away, and set the mug aside to dry for a day or two.

Rub over any stray drip marks and the tongs marks too to smoothen the surface of the mugs.

Use a wet sponge and carefully clean the base of the pot, removing all the settled lumps of glaze that have formed on the wax.

The cleaner the mug’s surface at this point, the better they’ll look once fired. So take your time to make each mug look perfect at this stage.

12. Prepare the firing cones

Pyrometric cones are essential for gas firing. You’ll need to prepare a bunch of cones of different colors. Take a block of special clay and place one of each color cone into it at a slight angle.

This clay-like material used in this process is a simple mixture of 50% china clay and 50% coarse alumina hydrate.

During the firing process, the cones need to be positioned in specific spots opposite the spy holes in the kiln’s door. This allows you to observe the cones during the firing process.

As the internal temperature of the kiln rises, the cones will bend over accurately at specific temperature points. They also measure heat work, which is heat over time.

The cones are used to judge each firing accurately. They are incredibly important, and it’s not advisable to fire a gas kiln without them.

13. Glaze firing

Begin packing the kiln make sure that the pieces are not touching each other or they may fuse together. You might have to experiment with several layouts to find the most efficient way to pack the kiln.

Once everything is packed, lightly shine a light through the spy hole to ensure that the pyrometric cones can be seen.

Ignite the pilots in the burners and put them on their lower settings for a few hours. This lets the kiln heat up gradually.

Then increase the temperature and check the cones to ensure that the kiln is reaching the correct temperature.

Once the cones bend over, the kiln is at the right temperature.

14. Inspecting the final results

After letting the kiln cool down to room temperature, it’s time to open the kiln and inspect your mugs.

Even if everything went according to plan, you might still find a surprise or two when opening a gas kiln.

Make sure to check every mug individually to see if it is successfully fired or not.

If one of your mugs isn’t completely fired, you can fire it a second time or decide to throw it way.

Don’t be upset if some of your pieces failed. This happens even to very experienced potters.

Conclusion

I hope this step-by-step guide was helpful and you now know how to make your own mugs.

Try to make a few mugs yourself and let me know how it went!

And don’t be discouraged if the first few mugs don’t turn out exactly the way you wanted. Just keep trying until you get the hang of it.

Once you know how to make a basic mug, you might also want to check out these beautiful mug designs and take your skills to the next level.