Putting Handles on Coffee Mugs

hey everybody welcome back I hope you're doing well today we're going to put some handles on some coffee mugs for my new wood kiln that will be firing in about a week so let's go [Music] alright here we go I'm going to show you real quickly my setup and how I like to put on handles number one I like to stand up while I'm putting on handles because I can keep my back straight I can use this rack so I can adjust the height of the shelf or I can set the mug and work on the height that I want and it might need to go a little higher than this I just have this set up here I haven't even put on a handle yet but I've got my putting on extruded handles today I do three or four different kinds of handles depending on what style of mug and how I'm feeling all that but I'm putting on extruded handles today but there's different ways to put on extruded handles so I'm just going to show you this one way it's not the right way it's just the way the right now that I prefer to put on handles so I've got those all extruded I've got a couple of them cut so I can test the length I've got my my scoring tool here which is one of these metal thin metal ribs with a jagged edge I've got a paintbrush I've got a little bowl of water here I've got a wet sponge and then I've got my bowl of slip here so we've got all the mugs back here under the plastic but anyway just wanted to quickly show you my setup and how I do this and then I also get a towel set up here so that I could wipe my hands off while I like to have everything right here as I get started so that as I'm rolling through the mugs I can just bring one or two over here but the handle I'll go put it up and keep rolling through them so I can get them done as quickly and most efficiently as possible so anyway I'm gonna test the first couple and then I'll bring you back once I get once I get rolling okay I've got the handles I'll cut the same length I'm doing five and a half inches on these I've already handled about five or six and so we're gonna get rolling and I'm gonna show you how these handles are done and then for the rest of them I might just speed it up and you'll have a fast ago if the rest of it I had about 40 mugs to begin with and so anyway I've got three different styles of mugs that I made the other day three different shapes but anyway these are all these handles are kind of like a an oval shape kind of with like a point at the corners and so I each handle and I take one end and kind of where I've cut it I kind of round all those edges off like that and then the other end I take and actually flatten it because I'm going to attach this handle straight on to the mug so that it kind of resembles a handle that is attached and then pulled from the mug and it also gives the handle a little bit more room than more stability I think they're doing like a strap handle that connects here and goes up and then down those always seem to me like they tilt forward when you hold the mug with one of those that's attached here and then loops up and down just my preference of the way I feel handle and so that's kind of what I'm trying to make is something that feels good in my hand anyway so once I have that flattened and a little bit bigger on that end and I've got the other end smooth I'll take the mug score it up near the top in a pretty small area I try not to score too big of an area because I don't want that scoring marks to be outside of the area of my handle and then another thing that I used to do is I used to take slip and put it on the mug and and and there's nothing wrong with that either but I found that I just by putting the slip on the end of the handle then I get the right amount every time and I get it just where I need it by just putting a little bit of slip on the end of the handle like that right there then I've got enough slip on it and I've already got my spot score and now I'm just going to kind of push this into the mug kind of both hands kind of wiggle it back and forth and also get those corners pushed in and once I've got that attached I go ahead and actually bring the bottom down and attach it I don't have to score and slip the bottom because the bottom of the mugs are a little bit more wet and so I'm gonna just add a little bit of moisture there by licking my finger you're probably not supposed to do that but that's what I do and then attach that push that in flatten that out ban also I add a little bit of clay as I'm button at the bottom I just little ball of clay off the extra clay from the handles flatten that lick that as well make it wet put that on there and I have my butt custom stamp here that I made stamp that in the bottom of for the button then I usually take my my my paintbrush and clean off the extra slip right around the handle that's one of the reasons I have the sponge here is to clean off the brush as I'm wiping away the slip do that on each side fun this is a little bit easier than trying to attach that and then get my finger in there and sometimes I'll end up messing things up with a brush it smoothes it out gets all the extra slip out of the way and then I come back and look at it from the side to get my shape correct make sure the handle shaped well and then I set this over here on the table and later I'll come back and put the little foam grips on there so we'll do a couple more here at regular speed and then and then we'll speed up through the rest of them and then I'll come back and show you guys how I do the little foam grip [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Music] welcome back now I'm going to show you how I do the thumb grips on my coffee mug handles I used to just take a little ball of clay like this and I would stick it on there and kind of mash it down and make like a little thumb grip that was like that and those are still cool I like those but with this new style of hand I started doing I changed up my thumb grip as well and I like it better it probably takes a little more time than the other one but like said I like it better what I do is I keep some of the scraps in my handles like this is one that had a little groove in it that I didn't like so I set it aside and what I do is is I'm probably cutting them down here but just for an example I'll show you what I would do is take you know maybe a little eighth to a quarter of an inch slice of that handle I cut it that way and then I kind of cut it again long ways maybe not quite in half it gives myself this little rounded half part of the handle and then all I do with that is I usually add a little bit of water and you can get my little little bowl back over here and I and I set it on like that and then I smooth down the bottom side and then I go on the top side and I smooth that down and then usually let me get my water bowl back over here just get a little water on my finger and a right on the top and on the bottom just to smooth that out wipe it down with my sponge and there we go so you'd be an ID in there of what that looks like finished like said it's just like like a little eighth of an inch slice and then cut that in half part of the handle so I get that curve on there and then when that's done it makes a really nice comfortable thumb grip that's not too obtrusive and it's but it still gives you something to hold on to there on the top of the handle so we'll do a couple more at regular speed and then we'll fly through the rest of them I'd say one of the major downsides to doing this kind of thumb grip or really any thumb grip is that you can't put the thumb grip on while the while the handles freshly put on the mug so I have to pick all the mugs back up again and to put all the thumb grips on and that just adds a whole other time that I have to touch each of the mugs and pick them back up off the table and move them so all those things in pottery if you're if you're making any kind of production all those things is really what adds up to all the time that it takes to to make anything because if I can make something that doesn't need handles and I just set it aside and it can dry dry on the back and I don't have to touch it again it almost feels like I'm cheating because it's like well I mean I only threw that and I set it aside now it's dry and I sign it or pops off the bat and I sign it and I'm done so but the these little foam grips don't take very long at all and I'm not worried about them all being exactly the same but I just like scent cut it cut a little slice to cut it in half add a little bit of water I'm not really trying to add a bunch just to add a little something to help it adhere and to give me something so I can smooth out this clay here when I do that and I just kind of do my thumb on the top and the bottom there and then like said making a little water on my finger just to smooth out all that that unattached sponge it off and there we go [Music] and we're outta hyperdrive so I don't know how long this video is yet so I'm going to check that before I finish and either we'll finish it up tonight or we'll maybe I'll show you all the pots that I got ready for the wood fire and where the kiln is at this stage that's probably what I'll do that tomorrow morning and then finish up the video but anyway hope you guys learn something enjoyed that and see in a second [Music] [Applause] [Music] well there we go that'll wrap up this video I hope you enjoyed it I hope you learned something I tried to do a little tour of all the pots I had made so far and a little bit of the kiln it is just about done all I have is like two courses of those big block and the chimney do the installation and coating on the top of the arch and it's pretty much ready to roll so I should be firing next weekend which may not mean a whole lot based on when this video is released but according to my time right now next weekend I'll be firing for the first time my shelves half of my shelves came in a couple months ago the other half of my shelves we're supposed to be here the end of August the 1st of September and here it is the middle of October and I still don't have them they are in the US now but they have not made it to my house that was part of the ups and downs I was going to fire my kiln about 2 or 3 weeks ago have my kiln open in this weekend coming up and it just things fell through and it was very disappointing very depressing it away so I spent a few days just really upset really mad and I just had to get over it and and move on so gave me a little more time to just to do some other things and relax a little bit and now things are ready to roll as long as the shelves show up and I've got a few more days for them to arrive before I need to start loading probably about a week and then I'll start loading and fire this kiln next weekend so anyway thank you guys for being here as always don't forget to subscribe before you go and hit the thumbs up button leave a comment question anything you need and we'll see you in the next video thanks [Music] [Music]

Channel: Matthew Kelly Pottery

Views: 8,778

Rating: 4.9898734 out of 5

Keywords: Pottery, Handles, Matthew Kelly Pottery, Mug (Product Category), Coffee (Beverage Type), Wood Kiln

Id: t-d1XYL-0Eg

Length: 17min 52sec (1072 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 19 2019