Refinements

Well the first reviews of the Flat Tire Chain Mug are in and I have to say I'm a bit disappointed.
Not in anything the reviewer said of course, but in my own skills as a maker of all things mugness.
Or muggyness.
Oh wait, that's a weather term.
Mugmakingness.
Of course like the first version of any item, there are some weaknesses in the design.
Alpha testing of course is me.
The problem with that is that as the creator of the product, I've already thought(I think) of all refinements that could possibly be done.
I mean I look at it, and look at it, and Yup! it's perfect.
At least I think so.
So off it goes to beta testing.
This is where it gets good.
In my case, the test sample group usually involves close friends and family(must keep the new product design top secret!). Feedback from this group is usually all positive, for they are after all, friends and family.
That's usually not good.
The positive feedback, I mean.
Glossed over responses like "that's awesome dude!" or "how clever" are not very useful in product testing.
In order to bring a more perfect uh, mug to you, the reader, The Flat Tire did something different and sent out for real world beta testing the Flat Tire Chain Mug and I thought it would be interesting to reveal some of the results.
The most important one, for it is part of the design, is the handle:



If you've been following along at home, you know that I've sort of been apprehensive about the durability of the design. So much so that after further review and with the help of said feedback, I've decided not to create the large size mug with said handle.
Just not confidence inspiring enough to carry extremely hot beverages with.
I could beef it up by making the links thicker, and I think I'll be trying that today. Still it's an open design(as opposed to the solid design of the MTB tire), so I won't be doing any large mug/steins with it, unless it's for decorative purposes only.
The other thing is my mistake of not glazing the bottoms of the mugs. I wondered about this(sort of new to this type of clay, but really no excuse) and thought about glazing the bottoms, but it's easier not to so I didn't.
I mean it's not like I'm lazy or anything.
Okay not really, I am.
Lazy I mean.
With high fire clay, the stuff I used to work with, the clay vitrifies, meaning it goes back to rock like form(molecules tighten up and it gets real hard), while this low fire stuff remains porous.
I thought about glazing the bottoms, really I did, but the evil laziness told me it was okay not to.
Well, I'm glazing all the bottoms and refiring all existing mugs today.
Real world beta testing helps.
Refinements get made.
Lessons get learned.
Swelling artists' heads get deflated.
Oh, and as I'm writing this, a friend calls to tell me that the Industrial Teapot made the newspaper this morning in a write up of the show.
Humbled and applauded all in one morning.
My semi large head just did a Linda Blair spin.
Out to the gara-, uh studio, to perfect my craft and hopefully, perfect the mug.
Or mugmakingness.