Ceramic Travel Mug

How to slab-construct your very own travel mug out of clay!

1. Disclaimer: I am not a professional, and my lovely studio handles firing our greenware. I will not be giving firing instructions; only building techniques for this project!!
2. I will be making a part-2 Instructable on decorating and glazing our piece, so stay tuned!

1. About a softball-sized ball of mid-fire clay
2. Clay slip (mashed-potato-consistency clay used for joining pieces together)
3. Rolling pin/access to a slab-roller
4. Paper for a template
5. Serrated rib tool
6. Smooth wooden rib
7. Spounge

Clay Stage: Wet

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Cut out paper slab templates:

1. Circle:
2. diameter is how wide you want your cup to be (I chose 3 inches: PRO TIP: Make sure your hand can fit inside the circle, which helps in step #3!!)
3. Rectangle:
4. One side is how tall you want your cup to be
5. One side is the circumference (2πr) of your circle, plus about half an inch

Roll out clay (~0.25 inches) and cut out:

1. x2 Circles
2. x1 Rectangle

Clay Stage: Wet

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1. Form your circle! If the clay is wet enough, you can bend it; if not, you may need a jar to bend it around.
2. *Make sure any jar/cup you use to form your clay is CLEAN and will not contaminate it
3. Score edges you will attach with a rib tool and use slurry to fuse them together

My Process: I realized my cup was much too tall, so I sized it down and saved the extra piece to make a cup with later!

Clay Stage: Wet

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1. Score and slurry the bottom edges to combine with a circle.
2. Score outer edges with a ribbed tool and smooth to the desired refinement
3. Refine and reinforce the inside edges

Clay Stage: Leather Heard

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1. Refine the bottom into a rounded edge
2. Use a flat rib to sharpen all edges and make the sidewalls even

Clay Stage: Leather Heard

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1. Cut out and refine roughly half of the top circle, leaving ~.25 inches around the border
2. Use a needle tool to sharpen all edges, and be sure to clean out any clay shavings that may have fallen into the cup
3. VERY CAREFULLY carve outa sip hole, oversizing it just a bit because clay can shrink when fired
4. Refine with a needle tool to get a crisp tapering edge

Clay Stage: Leather Heard --> Bone Dry

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1. FINAL refinements (look for unintentional scratches, etc.)
2. Leave to dry before firing
3. Congratulations, you constructed a travel mug! 🎉🎉