Function:

Cups

I love making cups.  There’s something special about these simple, everyday objects and the quiet role they play in people’s lives. A porcelain cup feels both precious and permanent to me. It’s fragile, yet it can last for generations. In that way, a cup becomes a kind of time traveller, carrying stories long after we are gone.

Most of the time a cup sits quietly on a shelf in our homes, listening to the buzz of everyday life and waiting to be part of the daily ritual of drinking. Over time it gathers memory – morning coffee, late-night tea, conversations with friends, quiet moments alone.

Back in 2001, during a year-long residency at the Alberta College of Art and Design, I had the privilege of working alongside many Canadian clay artists who inspired their communities through beautiful functional ceramics. That experience really reinforced for me the value of handmade objects in the home, and how much a handcrafted piece can enrich our lives.

Utilitarian objects can hold powerful memories. When I drink from a cup made by a maker living in a far-off place, I’m immediately transported to another landscape, another studio, another moment in time. I feel connected to the person who made it, knowing their fingerprints are captured forever on the surface.

From the maker’s point of view, I still love that imagined place that making usable objects takes me to. When I’m in the studio working on a cup, something magical happens. I start picturing someone in their home enjoying a drink from it as part of their daily routine. That thought always makes me smile.