Some Ideas Take Time
My oracle cup idea came to me about 15 years ago. I remember the exact moment… I was in a tea house with my little sister in Santa Cruz. At that time my youngest child was looking at schools on the west coast, I was headed for a divorce and in danger of losing my house on the farm. My sister was (and always is) a solid I could lean on. As I drained my cup, the tea leaves swirled at the bottom and made a distinct “?” shape.
First prototype
Back home, my heart ached with the empty nest, and I wanted a cup of tea that would tell my sons to remember our home. The first prototype I made was a plaster-gauze mesh wrap-around an existing cup. I created a false surface for the liquid. Words painted in the swirl of the fake liquid said “sanctuary”, “help”, and “wonder”
2nd iteration
For my second prototype, I collaborated with a ceramic mold maker who, I am sorry to say, has since gone out of business, thanks to the Covid quarantine. The cup, attached to the saucer, were fired by her and painted by me in acrylics. I filled the bottom of the cups with resin and plunked little ransom note type letters cut from magazines. These bore messages like “look no further”, and “call your mother”. Many sold, but overwhelmingly, people responded that they wanted the cups to be usable.
That brings me to this third manifestation, which consists of found cups slow fired with custom decals. They are food and dishwasher safe. The idea of faux liquid surface is gone, and now the message lies in the bottom of the cup. It has been hard to find anyone with a kiln willing to spend the electricity on a firing so long and low, but I am grateful to Eve Biddle at the Wassaic Project for helping me out. It was an experiment with 32 cups. A few melted in the heat. Some exhibit charred edges or a weird granular pitting of the surfaces. The ones that are perfect are the ones that say, “Call your sister”. There is one teacup and saucer that says, “call your mother”. Check them out in the Store
Please let me know what you think. I am still open to feedback.
