Began with a Stone
This mug didn’t begin with a drawing. It began with a stone.
The artist had come across a piece of Gobi stone and picked it up. Its natural shape happened to sit comfortably in his palm. There was something about its coolness, weight and texture that ceramic alone couldn’t quite offer.
That moment led to a simple question: Why does a mug handle have to be made of ceramic?
For him, the appeal of stone goes beyond colour or pattern. Decoration is made to be seen; a handle is made to be held. By turning the stone into a handle, it becomes the point where the hand meets the object.
Choosing by Hand
Not every beautiful stone makes a good handle.
When selecting stones, the artist begins with how each one feels in his hand. Do the fingers fall naturally around it? Are there any uncomfortable edges? Is it too heavy once the mug is filled? Colour and pattern come later.
Each stone is picked up repeatedly as he mimics the gestures of holding and drinking from a mug. Some of the most beautiful stones are eventually rejected. One striking Egyptian stone, for example, had to be abandoned because its weight pulled the filled mug towards the handle. For him, looking good is a bonus; working well comes first.
Shaping and Firing
The mug body is made from a coarse stoneware clay, chosen for its workability and the warm, softly matt quality it develops after firing. Its understated character sits naturally alongside the raw texture of the stone.
Different versions of the mug are formed in different ways. For the hand-pinched pieces, the texture is pressed and shaped by hand once the clay has partially dried and is firm enough to hold its form. For the marbled-clay pieces, differently coloured clays are combined, sliced and then formed, allowing the pattern to become part of the ceramic body rather than simply decorating its surface.
Most pieces are finished with a subtle matt glaze, chosen so that the ceramic surface does not compete with the natural colour and character of the stone. Each mug is single-fired at approximately 1220–1260°C.
Although the stone is attached after firing, its place in the design is determined much earlier. While forming the ceramic body, the artist creates a dedicated joining base for the individual stone. Because every stone has a different shape and curve, the contact surface and installation angle must be adjusted by hand for each mug. Once the ceramic body has been fired, the stone is secured to the joining base using a heat-resistant, food-grade structural adhesive.
Letting the Mug Adapt
The ceramic body is clean and controlled, while each stone retains its naturally irregular form. Rather than reshaping the stone to fit a predetermined design, the artist works the other way around: the mug adapts to the stone.
Its proportions, wall thickness, base weight and joining area all respond to the individual piece of stone. The form we see today emerged gradually through tests with dozens of stones in different shapes and weights, with each version bringing small adjustments to balance and proportion.
There is no standard template for bringing the two materials together. The artist weighs each stone beforehand to anticipate how much counterbalance the ceramic base will need. Even after firing, the joining surface must be refined by hand to follow the stone’s individual curve.
What looks simple in the finished mug is the result of many small decisions.
Made to Be Held
As much as possible, each stone is left in its natural form. If an edge feels sharp or uncomfortable, however, it is gently worked down. The principle is simple: the mug is still meant to be used.
It becomes part of ordinary moments: morning water, coffee at a desk or tea in the afternoon. It is picked up, put down and touched again and again, until the hand becomes familiar with a shape that can never be exactly repeated.
For the artist, firing doesn’t mean the mug is finished.
