Sounds pretty sinister, but people were really receptive to it! The idea of the project was to create a usable mug, then walk up to someone and give them said hand made piece of art. Fun!
So around 7pm our class walked down to the coffee shop. There were a few people there and some class mates jumped up and gave their mugs away the moment they walked through the door and set eyes upon someone. I however, preferred to case the joint, secretly watching for a victim out of the corner of my eye while I sipped on a giant cup of tea. I'm sneaky like that...
Here is the mug that I made:
And a Side view:
I had the idea that I wanted to make a regular mug on the pottery wheel, but then add a sculptural figure to the outside that could double as a handle. The octopus tentacles are curled up and joined to the top of the mug in two spots to create two different handles that you can hold. Then there's a starfish, just because the octopus looked lovely and needed a little buddy.
So after sitting in the coffee shop for over two hours and the number of people dwindling, A young guy came in and sat at a table with his mac book. I decided this was it. He looked like the kind of fellow that would appreciate an octopus mug. I walked up to him and said "Hey, I've been doing a ceramics course and we just finished a project on art and social engagement. The final aspect of the project is that I have to give someone a piece that I made, and you are here right now, so you get to have this mug." and I handed it to him.
"Wow... Cool, so I get a mug??? For free? Do I have to sign anything?" He asked looking a little dumbfounded.
"Ha ha! Nope, you just get to have it, no strings attached. Hope you like it!" I replied, and walked back to my table to finish my tea.
It was pretty fun to just randomly give someone something you made. Everybody likes presents! In the future I'd like to try doing more projects that involve giving and sharing. Seeing everyone's reactions to the mugs that our class gave them was really great.
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