Is $20 for a handmade mug expensive?
Eleven years ago (I remember because it was at a major family event) one of my brothers asked me why I make mugs. He said, "You can buy a mug at Walmart for cheap. Why would you make a mug for $20? Nobody will buy it." I responded, "If you don't see a difference between my mug and the one from Walmart, you should buy the one from Walmart!"
I almost gave up making mugs. Even though I love to make them. Because there is truth in the Walmart comparison. Many people see price first.
Making a good mug is an art. The body must be light in weight and well-shaped for drinking. The handle must fit the hand and perform a balancing act so the contents of the mug don't end up on your lap. The surface must appeal. There should not be uncomfortable seams, or glaze that chips or stains easily.
A Walmart-type mug may be okay. In my experience, and based on what I see on people's mug shelves, the big-box store mugs often chip quickly, and the glaze usually begins to retain coffee or tea stains in the craze lines very soon. There's nothing particularly interesting about using them. They are cheap, utilitarian, and easily replaced. But the go-to mugs in a potter's cupboard will not be those. They will be the different ones, the one with interesting texture or shape, the ones with drinking lips that are neither too thick nor too thin, and that hold just the right amount of liquid to suit particular individuals.
Last year, after attending a workshop, I bought one of the workshop potter's $60 mugs. He gave me a courtesy price, because I am a potter too. It was still the most I had spent on a mug, but I enjoyed this mug for its shape, color and texture, and use it every day.
Steven Hill mug. I use this one all the time and love it.
This year, at a prestigious pottery show, I bought two mugs I liked, one for $55
Love the meticulously decorated, wood-fired surface of this Charity Davis Woodard mug.
and one for $30.
Wood-fired mug by Mark Shapiro. This one is the easiest to hold and the lightness of weight is a real pleasure.
I knew the art and labor that went into making them, especially how the most expensive one had been fired with a group of pots in a kiln that had to be fed with wood over a 72-hour period to create some of those surface effects. These two potters did not give me a courtesy price for also being a potter. They were at a prestigious pottery sale, and a portion of their sales already was spoken for by the venue. Potters selling at a show may end up making as little as 50% per item, and must build in fair wage for themselves. I was paying the potters their considered fair value; there is yet another layer to fair value- depending upon whether you are the buyer or the seller, of course. I am not a layman. I understand as a professional what the cost to the potter really is.
I still make mugs because they are so useful. And so beautiful. And so intimate. I don't fire my pots in a wood kiln (although I love the surface it gives the pots), so that cuts down radically on the labor of firing. But I give them good handles, good surfaces, pleasantly shaped bodies, and rims that are made to drink from. I do not cast them, ram-press them, or buy the mugs ready-made for "painting." I make each by hand, with care. And for these, I charge $20. It is up to the buyers to decide whether to go to Walmart, or to check out the mugs on my website (scroll down that page to see mugs!) or to come right to the gallery, hold various mugs in their hands, and decide which are just right for them.