Rinnova Mugs

In collaboration with Madelaine Smith

42 thrown stoneware mugs

Madelaine and I worked at the coffee shop on Cedarville University’s campus called Rinnova. As a team, we celebrated the end of each semester with a white elephant mug exchange, where our supportive coworkers and friends would fight tooth and nail to get one of the handmade mugs we would each bring. For our final year on the team, we ended the semi-annual white elephant by announcing there were a few more mugs waiting in the other room. We collaboratively created 42 thrown mugs with pulled handles, each with a unique “R” painted on in black underglaze. It was a deep joy to bless those we work alongside in this way, creating a personal, thoughtful souvenir to remember this season of life with. Working in collaboration is so freeing, barely being able to tell where one’s own work ends and the other’s begins.