Journal Entry #2: "Cups Without Handles"

When I first looked at the assignment, I was a little confused at the thought of a cup without a handle. Just the wording of it threw me off. But sitting here, typing this out now, it hit me that cups don't have handles. Duh.
Otherwise it would be called a mug.

Cup:                                                   Mug:

Kind of a no-brainer. 

But anyway, cups without handles. I drink from a cup every day, several times a day even, but I never really take the time to look at the design of it and appreciate it. Probably because I don't drink out of fancy, hand-made, ceramic cups on a regular basis. There are so many cool cup ideas that people come up with, it's crazy. The cup and mug examples I used are so visually intriguing to me, hence why I used them to begin with. But still, the alternating color of the cups are awesome. So is the shape and how it looks broken up into sections. 

Then there are cups that are still just a simple cup, but they're so much more than that. 

Take this cup for example:

Can this cup hold liquid? Yes.. It's a cup.
Does it have handles? No, therefore "cup without handles".
Is it art? Of course, someone made it.
Is it cool? Uhhh... Yes!

I mean, look at it. It almost looks like a square. And look at the bottom! It looks so simple, but so complex and cool at the same time. I wish I could throw a set of cups like this and use them all the time. I love the glaze used on it to. Well done, John Chwekun. You made an awesome no-handled cup.

This is an interesting cup as well. Such a simple, but complicated design. I like how the shape of the piece speaks for itself without needing to have an intricate glaze pattern on it. Clean, crisp, refreshing. Drinking ice cold water out of this would be sublime.  

Source: http://accessceramics.org/