Making of a Mug | Cindi Daniele | Episode 816

Cindi Daniele | Episode 816

Cindi Danieli a mom, she has 4 amazing kids and a sweet puppy. Cindi lived in Philadelphia until she moved to Florida 8 years ago. Cindi had always wanted to try the pottery wheel, and about 3 years ago from the time of this episodes release she decided to take a class. Cindi was hooked immediately, fell in love with everything about it. She hopes to be able to do it full time someday.

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You make two shapes really consistently. How did you land on the shapes that you make?

I do so the one with like the belly-type shape, I just kind of, I’m going to be honest it was just kind of an accident at the beginning and I like the way it feels when you hold it because it is kind of round at the bottom and it keeps your drink hotter because it gets smaller at the top. So I don’t know it just kind of worked out and I like the way it looks and feels. The second shape, I just started doing that recently and I think it was because my other shape messed up so I cut the top part off and it was just a shorter round mug and I thought, This would be good too. I have big man hands , I call them, so for me, I like a bigger mug so I always tend to make a bigger mug, but not everybody has big man hands like me. So I think it’s good to have a shorter, smaller mug to choose from. .

How long did you experiment with your handles to get them to fit so nicely?

From the beginning. Handles were always really difficult for me until I found the extruder.

Oh, yes.

Yeah. I do use that and I only use one of the die cuts that I specifically like because your thumb kind of fits in it. But I feel like I change the position to whatever the shape of the mug is. You say that they are pretty uniform, I find every single one turns out different. I try to make them the same but they always seem different to me. But that’s okay because they are handmade they are supposed to look different.

You always have something on your mugs, an insect, a flower, a message. Is it important to you to have a mug with a message?

I don’t know why but that’s just where it went. And I don’t know, I’m happy with it. I love the lotus one, just like a little, I don’t know, something to think about or make you smile when you pick it up.

With your glaze lines, do you have a principal you were following or are you going by instinct?

I don’t know, just making different mugs and I did have a couple where the glaze hit the kiln shelf and I don’t know, I was just like, Maybe if I didn’t go all the way down then I don’t have to worry about that because that will mess up the whole mug and messes up your kiln shelves so I thought if I bring it up a little bit and I like the look of it and it makes the picture or the drawing I put with it stand out a little bit more. I like the texture and the feeling of the raw clay too.

Your glazes give the feeling of action. Are you layering them?

Well they have changed a lot too so when I first started I was doing a lot of dipping because the studio that I was going to had a lot of dipping glazes that I could use which is a lot faster and it goes a lot quicker. Now that I am in my garage shop, I’m really brushing them on and it takes a lot of time but I love the way they turn out now.

We know that you have a time line of two years out of starting your work and being able to go full time. What is the first thing you are going to do the first day you give your notice?

Oh man, I am going to get on my wheel for sure. (laughter) I am going to make a bunch of mugs.