Pete Pinnell on cups

Lately I've seen bloggers posting photos of their mug collections and it made me think this might be a good time to re-post this wonderful Pete Pinnell video on cups.

It's been a few years since I first posted this and it seemed like a good time for a replay, while I sip my morning tea in my current favorite mug - the one I always reach for first.

We potters seem to collect a lot of mugs and I wonder how often any of us use all of them. In our house, the mug rack holds the ones we're most prone to use ourselves or have ready when we have house guests; but there are many other worthy ones scattered in cupboards and display shelves. All of them have something appealing, to warrant them taking up space, so why don't I rotate them? I guess it has a lot to do with size preference (some are smaller than I like). Others have very interesting different shapes and decor, but either fit in the not large enough category, or may be a bit heavier than I like.

Years ago when I owned a gallery and later just selling my own work at my studio, I always had a varied selection of mug/cup sizes, shapes and handles. Not everyone holds mugs the same way and not every ones fingers feel comfortable with all handles. What fits one hand might be uncomfortable or awkward for another. Some people love the  thumb rests I put on many of my mugs, but a man with a large hand might not find that a comfortable fit. So I always made sure there were some without those thumb rests. Some people put two or four fingers through the handle, so they like me, like a generous handle.

So I'm going to get out of this rut, and put a couple of those orphan mugs on the mug rack and temporarily retire a couple of those currently taking up residence. I might even try using one or two of them, but not with my morning tea. I'm not ready to go that far right now. :-)