This was a request from my husband, as he was gifted a bottle of very nice sake from Japan by a colleague. He had to wait about 6 weeks for this to be finished, though, and we finished the bottle of sake before I brought this home.
Clay: white earthenware clay, beginners
Method: I coiled the sake bottle, bottom and top separately, then attached the top to the bottom at the narrowest point. Then I shaped the pouring lip. Trimming this bottle took a long time, as I had built the base wide so as to keep it strong. I then carved vertical stripes down the bottle 2/3 of the bowl, partly to help with grip later as normally, the bottles have no handles. Normally people would grip it by the neck, but my neck was particularly short. The sake cups were made using the pinch technique. I particularly like the foot of the flared cup, which I carved into a cross shape.
Glaze: outer - vintage brown. Inner - rust green. The bottle had vintage brown throughout. On one of the cups the brown glaze had got into the inner surface, resulting in an uneven speckled pattern.
Issues: The sake cups had the same weight, but as the shapes were different, the volumes the cups could hold were different. Hence even though the flared cup was the prettiest, it held the least amount of sake and was hardly used.
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