How It’s Made
Here’s a behind the scenes of how I made the cups for Cornershop Coffee (featuring various levels of heartbreak and neurotic behaviours).
This series was documented by the very patient and talented Oliver Townsend.
Step One - Throwing
Heartbreak = 1/10
Neurotic behaviour = 3/10
To make these cups stackable they need to be exactly the same. I’m hunched over, frantically checking and rechecking and triple checking measurements.
I’m like a profoundly calm surgeon listening to Mozart, making incisions to save a baby's life. Except I'm just a crazed woman sweating over a wheel. And I'm listening to the Barbie soundtrack. And it's not a live baby, it's just some bits of mud. So not like that at all really.
Step Two - Drying
Heartbreak = 5/10
Neurotic behaviour = 7/10
Now I leave them to dry. In the upcoming weeks I will have been woken in the night with the following erratic thoughts:
What if a bird flies in and destroys them all?
What if the Macc canal bursts and floods my studio (on the 1st floor)?
What if a little mouse comes in and eats all the cups?
This is a small, incomplete sample. This is probably a good point to publicly thank my partner George who has had to deal with these ‘episodes’.
Step Three - First Firing
Heartbreak = 9/10
Neurotic behaviour = 2/10
Then for the first kiln loading. Loading a kiln full of cups is like the reverse of the game Operation, where you are trying to place the cups back into tiny holes in the kiln (there is a lot of swearing at this stage).
Step Four - Glazing
Heartbreak = 3/10
Neurotic behaviour = 9/10
Now for the glazing. I’ll resist the urge to place more surgery analogies here but the word ‘bloodbath’ springs to mind. Each cup needs to be dipped for exactly 2 seconds. The old elephant method comes in handy here. I’m crouched over my bloodbath (glaze), pronouncing about elephants (counting the seconds), whilst thrusting my surgical tongs into an old bucket of mayonnaise. All normal.
Step Five - Final Firing
Heartbreak = 8/10
Neurotic behaviour = 2/10
Low neurotic score for this stage. I know what you're thinking, how? How has she achieved this normality after such frankly bizarre behaviour?
I'm like a Zen cool buddha. Just flow states from now on. I just flow around the studio. My mind is blocked to the intrusive thought that I'm firing the cups to 1260 degrees celsius and that I could set fire to the whole building that I'm not entirely sure I have insurance for*. Zen, flow, zen flow.
This stage is so stressful calm that me and Oli forgot to take photos of it. So here is a nice photo of me teaching a workshop instead.
*Honest Neurotic behaviour score = 10/10
Step Six - Cups Are Born
Heartbreak = 0/10
Neurotic behaviour = 0/10
I’m like a midwife surgeon carrying many small children she’s brought into the world. I just shrug it off, ah yea I make pots. Yea it’s really relaxing, cool glad you like them. Not much work really, just chill vibes. No stress, heartbreak or neurosis whatsoever.
And there you have it! An honest description of how the cups are made.
A big thank you to Pete from Cornershop Coffee for getting me involved in the project, and Oli for documenting this process and somehow make it look nice and calm.
Emma x