A Cup Handle Fail

Oops! While having my second or third cup of coffee this morning, I held the cup as if it were a fist sized diamond and wondered.

I don’t know what a fist sized diamond is worth, but I was pondering the cup and the strength of the handle.

Years ago I watched a woman go prune faced when the handle of her delicate English tea cup failed and the contents soaked her lap.

The tea was not freshly brewed and the “tea party” continued.

I know a family that drinks all hot beverages from saucers. I’ve wondered where that came from and have decided it is just one of those things. Maybe they had a cup handle fail.

Coffee cups are made from mud that is baked, maybe glazed. Basically in holding a coffee cup we are holding a hand full of mud.

A college friend became a popular potter purely by accident.

Jerry and his wife watched a woman at a craft festival as she threw a pile of mud on a turning wheel that was powered by her feet.

He was fascinated by her ability to mold that pile of mud into a pot.

She helped him find an introductory class in pottery and it took off from there.

Within a year he became interested in glass blowing — making glass from sand.

He and his wife live in the mountains and do most of their work outside. They also teach beginning classes in pottery and glass blowing.

They bake their pottery in a woodfired kiln. The trees around their house are full of pottery nesting boxes that started off as something else.

They noticed that people were attracted to the nesting boxes, so now they make them also: And sell them.

We shuffled away from the crowd at an alumni reunion, and he confided to me that none of the things they make are useful.

He makes things out of mud and sand because it is fun and he enjoys doing it. If people think of it as art, they’ll pay more for it.

After enjoying my last cup of coffee of the morning, I squirted a short line of Colgate on my teeth brush and replaced the taste of coffee with the taste of mint and other things.

I paused and looked over my tooth brush the same way I looked at the handle on my coffee cup.

Things fail, bristles fall out. I flipped the brush into the trash can and started a new one.

joenphillips@yahoo.com