Mugs by Marianne Annereau

“Making mugs is like moving through life stress”

Marianne Annereau’s ceramic mugs have a life similar to humans. Babies are born unexperienced. Mugs start out perfectly wheel thrown. Both mugs and people go though several major life stressors or events. Not ALL mugs or people survive these life’s stressors. During the creative process, some mugs are lost to the stress of the kiln. They don’t live through the third and final firing. They crack, split or have faults. They live a shorter life than the mugs that make it through three firings.

The mugs that survive all three kiln firings are adorned with 24K gold lustre. Each mug is a one-off piece.

The Stress Cut

A mug with joinery is at greater risk of failing in the kiln. Marianne Annereau slices up a perfectly made mugs to put them through a stressful life, on purpose. She joins the sliced up mugs together with other sliced up mugs of non-matching forms. Cutting up mugs risks their survival by making them more prone to splitting during the intense heat of the kiln.

The First Firing 1000 degrees

The first firing is a stressful event for the mugs. The cut up, rejoined, stressed mugs enter the kiln to be fired at 1000 degrees celcius. Some mugs don’t survive the organic matter burning out of the clay, they crack. Some humans will not survive a tough event like an injury or mental trauma. A human may die young. A mug not survive the kiln may split at the join, and finish up in the bin prematurely.

The Second Firing 1280 degrees

The mugs must survive at 1280 degrees in the kiln. They will be in a soft, red hot state at that temperature. The glaze will melt into glass, they will become adult. When the kiln cools the mugs will be ceramic. Some of the mugs do not survive the second firing, they will have splits, cracks or glaze faults. The mugs that make it through the second firing continue to exist. They reached adulthood. But there are more stressful events ahead to endure.

The Third Firing 700 Degrees

Before the third firing Marianne applies real gold lustre to the surviving mugs. This process takes safety gear and care, working with gold lustre there is no room for error. The mugs enter the kiln for the third time at a temperature of 700 degrees to melt the gold. To survive the third firing is a solid test of life and brings rewards of gold adornment.

Losses

9 mugs did not survive the collection.

The PTSD Factor

A mug is straight forward for any potter to make. However in 2023 mugs became the only item Marianne could make. Everything more complex became impossible. All her other works were put on hold with only the mugs ticking along. Marianne was too ill with complex PTSD to pot as usual, she ceased supplying urns to grieving families temporarily. She was doing things like suffering chronic insomnia, being in a constant hyper vigilant state, losing large chunks of memory, locking herself away in her art studio for days, disassociating from her body, being an asshole to herself and living in a crisis. The mugs were made over several long months in stages. It was difficult to keep the mugs alive during the making process and not have them dry out and spoil. To keep them alive they were sprayed with water daily. Marianne was in weekly psychotherapy therapy, took three months off work, did sauna therapy, boxing, drawing therapy, writing therapy, sex therapy, art therapy and other activities deemed therapy, even if prohibited.

As the last few mugs were being fired Marianne began another body of work related to PTSD healing called the ‘Jetty Shack’. The pieces at the ‘Jetty Shack’ will appear in 2024.