Making Mugs

In early March, I gathered with a few women for Wine, Women and Mud. It was my first visit to WARE studio, where Joanna Kramer and Julia Finlayson have set up their ceramics studio.

This was a private workshop set up by a group of friends, and we brought wine and munchies to enjoy before we got our hands dirty. Joanna gave a demonstration of how to make our mugs. She showed us how to roll out the ball of clay and flatten it. Once we had smoothed the wet clay, we created textures from lace, mark-making tools and stamps.

Soon we had shaped 2-3 vessels. Joanna gave us a few glaze color options that we marked on the bottom of our piece.

A few ladies were ambitious and asked for non-standard colors, so they stayed longer to create their own color designs.

The mugs had to dry for a few weeks, and then Joanna glazed and fired our works.

I am happy with how mine turned out.

It is fun to customize my work since finding my name in gift shops is futile.

Ware Studio is located at 1040 Wesley Avenue, Evanston. You can register for workshops online.

I like the texture in the bottom of my vessels too.

You can find Joanna Kramer’s work at Stumble & Relish, or visit her shop online.

It was fun to play with clay, and to get be around friends. See if you can schedule a crafternoon with friends. Evanston Made has many options for private and public workshops.