I'm going to try to explain why a mug cost 30$ $40

There's a lot that goes into making a mug.

I will explain the process of making 30 mugs in a sitting.

First I have to get the clay ready for throwing this ensures there's no air bubbles. This process takes about 20 minutes.

Sitting at the wheel and making 30 mugs takes me about 90 minutes.

Then I have to take time to clean up my mess, I don't want dust to be in the studio so I try to clean everything while it's wet. This takes about 20 minutes.

then about 24 hours later when the clay is leather hard I trim the mugs this takes about 60 minutes.

Then I make about 35 handles for 30 mugs always good to have extra this takes me about 20 minutes.

Then I carefully attached to handles this takes about 40 minutes to an hour.

I then inspect each mug and clean up any blemishes this takes about 20 minutes.

Now the mugs dry slowly for a week or more to ensure that the handles don't pop off and that it's dry enough for firing.

I then inspect and sand all the rough edges and the bottoms this takes about 60 minutes.

I then clean up again this takes about 15-20 minutes.

Now it's time to get to kiln ready for the first firing. Inspect the shelves and make sure they are clean and don't need any work like kiln wash or sanding. This takes about 15 minutes if all is good.

Now it's time to load the kiln carefully placing pieces inside, adding kiln posts and shelves to make everything fit. This takes about 90 minutes.

Now the kiln fires to a bisque fire stage 1850 degrees this takes a total of 2 days before I can open it and get the pieces ready for the glazing.

After the firing is complete I unload the kiln that takes about 30 minutes.

Now I inspect all the pieces again sand parts that need it nobody likes a rough bottom on their pot. Then they all must be washed with a damp sponge to get all that dust off so that the glaze will stick to them. This takes me about an hour.

Now it's time for glazing, I make all my own glazes so glaze mixing is another 3-4 hours sometimes.

Let's say I have all my glazes mixed and ready to go, glazing will probably take me about 3 or 4 hours depending on what techniques I'm using.

Okay so now all the pieces are glazed and there's glaze on the bottom and that's not good. So all the bottoms need to be cleaned off so they don't stick to the kiln shelves. Takes about 30 minutes.

Now it's time to load the kiln. this is like doing a puzzle to get all the pieces to fit in perfectly with no pieces touching each other. If any pieces are touching they will stick together. this can take up to an hour and a half two hours.

Now the kiln is going to fire again the glaze firing. The temperature goes to 2200 degrees and then it takes the kiln another two days to cool off so I can open it.

Now I'm going to unload the kiln and inspect each piece again make sure there is no glaze flaws or rough bottoms, if there are rough bottoms then I sand them then I washed them and getting ready for market. This takes me about an hour.

Now there's all the extra stuff that I didn't include. The cost of the clay, maintenance of equipment, all the time spent on social media and my website. The cost of the boxes I used to ship. The rent I pay at the places that I sell at #UrbanArtmarket and #WalkervilleArtists'co-op

So you can see 30 to $40 for a mug is barely paying for my time good thing I

love doing it.