A Cup of Coffee

Started from a question: what's the most basic way to make a vessel, if you can't even center clay on a wheel? The answer was pinching — one lump of clay, pressed and expanded by hand, the way it might have been done before any tools existed. Each coffee cup was carved more than shaped, closer to whittling a wooden spoon than throwing pottery. Early on there was an urge to standardize the forms, but the primitive spirit of the process won out — some cups narrow at the base, some nearly straight, no two quite alike. Coffee doesn't have to look the same every day.