Review - Pottery from Alric of Drentha

[Cian of Storvik]

Great guggaly muggagly! London mugs! I spent half the night driving around town showing them off to people the mugs I received yesterday afternoon.

I commissioned 2 of these from Alric (actually he took pity on me after all my moaning and crying about wanting a period looking mug from which to drink my hot beverages, and offered to make them for me for a pittance.)

They are actually pretty large (more like a small milk/cream pitcher), but I noticed that they are pretty much spot on with the dimensions of the 14th cen. Museum of London's Kingston-upon-Thames pieces! And that really surprised me. (the few I noted were 6.0" tall x 5.5" wide all together on average, and these are 5.6" tall and 5" wide).

Someone asked me why they weren't glazed on the outside, and I said "I asked for him to glaze the inside and around the top", as the ones I saw looked like they were unglazed on the exterior. Though after thinking about it, I realized that they probably were glazed on the exterior, but it simply wore off with all of the handling and the ages of being buried. These are perfect though. I love the rough texture, and because of the tactile grip, you won't drop this unless it's intentional. Alric used some wood ash in the firing to give the exterior the mottled wood-firing appearance, which seems to really add a nice asthetic and one-of a kind look to the pieces, despite the fact that they are very close in proportions with each other. The interior of the cups is uniformly glazed with a lovely warm stone-grey glaze that is almost hypnotic to look at.

Alric of Drentha knocked these out pretty quickly (about 3 or 4 weeks from the point of payment and deciding on what original piece I wanted it to be closest to) which was good considering the added initial dry time, and the fact he was coordinating using the kiln with others. Packaged well, and great communication through the whole process (including a couple of progress pics). Pricing was very affordable, but I wouldn't expect to get a deal like this on pieces this large in the future.

[Alric of Drentha]

Thanks for the kind words, Cian, and I'm sorry that these took me so long to finish. I'm glad you're happy with them!