the story of the mugs

So, remember the mugs?  They didn't turn out exactly how we thought they would.  We were hoping for delicate, fresh, glassy green, but the first fire turned out dark, dark green mugs - still very lovely but definitely a surprise.  Lavinia emailed me straight away and sent these photos - I think she was as surprised as anyone, and while I liked the dark green, I was gutted they didn't turn out how I thought they would.  So Lavinia made an executive decision to reglaze the mugs, and they turned out blue!  Beautiful... except that one of the mugs got hit by a piece of shrapnel from another item in the kiln, leaving a damn near perfect bullet hole.  Interesting, but not what you want in a mug.

So, one of our customised mugs didn't make it.  I'm gutted we don't have two matching mugs, but Lavinia sent two, unstamped spares and the one mug that survived, so I'm happy for now.  They arrived today and I waited for Will to get home from work before opening the parcel and drinking our first cups of tea.  They are beautiful.

I've asked Lavinia (who should be credited for all the photographs in this post) to let me know when her kiln is set up and ready for action again (it's being moved and won't be available for a few months at best).  I haven't heard from her yet, but if she hasn't been scared away from doing custom orders, I'm going to hope that she will give it another shot.  Excuse the pun.

It has just occurred to me, that this might be some kind of omen, but I only see it as a positive.  We actually now have three beautiful mugs, rather than two, and a story to tell, and one rather gorgeous stamped mug which we will keep safe rather than use.  Yes, I would have loved two matching mugs, but you know, we are so different, Will and I, it kind of works better this way and I guess the unpredictability of the kiln adds a nice vibe too.  There will be more anniversaries and I expect one or more of these mugs might be lost or broken over the many years to come.  And then I'll just email Lavinia again in the hope that she'll be able to put her very lovely talent to use for us again.  In the mean time, we will drink tea.  Lots of it.