Recently, I had the opportunity to fulfill an order for one hundred custom-crafted mugs.  I recognize that, for some people, this is a sleep-walk in the park, and, for others, it is an insurmountable task.  For me, it was somewhere in the middle.  It was enough volume to get my attention, but not overwhelmingly intimidating.  

It was fascinating to experience first hand, what the “Production Potters” – particularly those trained in the “Leach Legacy” – have said all along – in essence, if you really want to understand your process, make a significant quantity of the items you are making.

I should be clear that the goal was never to make identical twins – more like recognizable family.  In our age of mechanized, and otherwise imposed, homogenization, my customer was happy to have recognizable individuality, personality, and variance in the final products.  There was no attempt or desire to disguise the fact that each mug was made by hand.  Artistically and philosophically, this suited me just fine.

On the surface, the process is straight forward.  Throw the mug bodies, and wait until they dry to leather hard – usually (but not always) overnight.  In the meantime, roll out, stamp, wash, and trim the slabs that comprise the custom logos that will be applied to the mugs.  Wrap those logos up nice and tight so they will not dry out before they are applied.  When the mug bodies are leather hard, pull handles, and let them set up while trimming the leather hard mug bodies.  Affix the logo slabs and the handles.  Cover the assembled mugs and let all those parts get to know each other while they dry together nice and slow.  Uncover them after a few days or so and let them dry out the rest of the way.  When they are bone dry, they go to the kiln for the bisque firing.  After they come out, apply wax to the logos to prevent glaze from adhering, then, glaze, load in the gas kiln, and fire!  Oh, and unless a potter should think he is finished at that point, the kiln needs to be unloaded, and the bottoms need to be touched up.  Simple, right! :-)

The interesting part, to me, is the relationships that emerge when trying to approach a project of this scope.  Just as a point of reference, many aspiring “studio potters” start off, and are challenge by, the mandate to “work in series of six or eight”.  And, yes, of course, an experienced production potter could sit down and crank out one hundred identical mugs in an afternoon.  And, well, I’ve reached the point that if we left out that “identical” word, I cold probably do that, too.  But that’s not the issue….

I know that I can comfortably throw about 25 to 50 pounds of clay to make about 14 to 30 mug bodies in a few hours.  But, the real challenge is the “next day”.  I spend a lot of time trimming those mug bodies.  Maybe it’s too much time.  Maybe I should change how I throw to reduce the amount of trimming that I do.  But, that is what I do – I spend a lot of time trimming.  I think that the bottom is just as – and maybe even more – important than the visible top.  I also still pull all of my handles by hand.  That takes time.  And, they need time to set up before than can be applied to the mug bodies.  Again, I think that the handle is a very critical element of the mug – it is the first interface between the object and the user – and that is a big deal.  And, believe it or not, I really do have reasons (and I have thought about those reasons) for why I do things the way I do them, and how they fit into the other steps of my process.

So, I find that my throwing time needs to be constrained by my ability to trim the bodies and to make and apply the attachments the next day.  The processes – which may seem distinct at first – are completely intertwined and interdependent.  The nature of clay compounds that issue a little bit.  Unlike, maybe paint, wood, fabric, or steel, clay sets the time line, and it is not very forgiving.  When I am making a shirt, I can set it aside, and come back to it when I have the time.  That is not so with clay!  Sure, we can wrap it in plastic, or set it outside in the sun, but, in general, it needs the right amount of time to be “right”.  There are not too many things a potter can do to speed up or slow down that time, and once the window of opportunity has passed, well, as they say, “That ship has sailed”…  Experience has shown that once the mug bodies dry past the magical “leather hard” stage, nothing else really works – trimming is miserable, handles and attachments pop off when they dry, cracking increases, and things are generally, well, “bad”.

With time being such a critical factor, there is also the issue of space.  No, not “Outer Space” – it’s actually more like “Inner Space” – as in the space in my shop!  I have heard that the two activities that require the greatest amount of flat surface area are pottery and baking.  And, well, I happen to do both.  So, I ALWAYS need more space!

Picture it – and let’s make it simple – multiple batches of thirty mug bodies each – some batches have handles and attachments and are covered in plastic slowly drying.  Some batches were thrown yesterday and will be trimmed today – and have all their attachments added.  Some batches are bone dry and waiting to go through the bisque kiln.  And, some batches have already been bisqued, and are waiting to be glazed and final fired.  Oh, and then there is the batch that was just thrown today and will be trimmed tomorrow – if the humidity cooperates.

So, just WHERE does a potter put all this STUFF??  Did I mention that it is all kind of fragile, so storing things in busy areas is a bad idea?  Fortunately, for me, I worked out the “space issues” in my shop.  But, it took a bit of “tidying up”, and eliminating any extraneous stuff that was taking up space and not directly related to the “Hundred Mugs” project.  And realize that the “Space Problem” continues until the happy customer arrives, packs up THEIR one hundred mugs, and takes them OUT of the shop! :-)

It is worth mentioning that I believe that “Murphy’s Law” exists.  It’s not some specter of impending doom that hangs over everything we do – certainly nothing so severe - but, things do go wrong, and it is worth building in a little slack to account for things like warping, cracking, unhappy glazes, breakage, and “that one just doesn’t look quite right”.  So, in order to be certain that there will actually BE one hundred mugs, it becomes “Make One Hundred and Twenty Mugs To Be Sure” – as a little bit of “insurance”.  That kind of insurance is usually a good thing, and helps a potter sleep better at night – especially the nights between firing and unloading the glaze kiln!

These are the kinds of things that I have learned – or at least developed a greater appreciation of - as a result of “Making One Hundred”.  I highly recommend that you pick a number.  Make it a number slightly larger than you feel is “reasonable”.  If you don’t have at least a little doubt, then it probably needs to be a slightly larger number.  Frankly, it doesn’t matter if it’s ten, a hundred, or a thousand – it’s more about how YOU feel when you think about the number.  If the number feels like it is on the outer cusp of your ability – then you’re probably in the right spot.  And then, go for it.  Seriously, don’t just talk about it – go and do it.  And, pay attention.  You will learn a lot about yourself, your material, and your process.  You will grow in good ways.

As an “Afterward”, my happy customer was so pleased when he distributed his mugs at his event that he requested thirty more.  At that point, my thinking was, “Oh, thirty, sure, no problem”.  That’s a nice feeling.  I made sixty more.  I don’t know why, I think it was just because I KNEW that I could.  I dare say that it was even kind of fun.  Not so secretly, I hope to get his order of TWO Hundred for his next event, and I am looking for more orders measured in multiples of “One Hundred”.  It’s good to be able to say, with certainty, “Yes, I can do that”.

Whatever you do, in whatever medium you work, find your number and try it out.  Yes, you can!