BDB blog

It took almost two years to turn this piece into reality. My goal was to create a nice looking, simple, roomy and most importantly, light mug (personally, I find that mugs are generally too heavy) and I am very happy to say that goal’s been accomplished. Before coming up with the design, there were many months of market researching and experimenting (one of them was testing different types of mugs daily!). My friend Regina, an amazing artist and very skilled ceramist assisted me with the logistics of getting such a fine piece made and also directed me to an equally talented ceramist who created the original piece for me. Together we tackled obstacles in producing this design and made adjustments which created a better product in the end.

Once we had the mug design finalized, the toughest challenge was to find a domestic and independent production studio that was willing to take on “small scale” projects. Luckily a dear and persistent friend of mine came across a studio not far from New York willing to come on board. Though the pieces came out perfectly, because they needed extra attention due to it’s unconventional weight and thickness, the production took longer than expected and my full order could not be completed. Needless to say, there is a very limited quantity of mugs (and plates) from this first batch. They are exceptionally unique and each received individual and special attention.

Due to some unrelated problems with the ceramics manufacturer that worked so hard on this first run, the partnership ended.  So today, I am still in the quest for finding a place to produce my mugs (and other porcelain pieces). Trying to keep within the philosophy of partnering with independent and domestic companies has proven to be more difficult than I thought, especially when you’re a small business. Perhaps it is time to look into other production options… think outside the box?

Anyway, here’s a bit of the “making of” the BDB decaling and finishing process…

I like to listen to “This American Life” while doing this. Makes the long and repetitive process considerably more enjoyable!

The mugs are washed in hot water with a little bit of dish soap to remove dust, finger prints, etc. – anything that will interfere with the decal touching the surface.

Decal application.

The decals need to dry completely before they go in the kiln. (I have fired a piece with a “not so dry decal”… and I could say it looks… abstract?)

Always exciting to see all the pieces made it through the firing okay!

Photographing the final piece is as important as making it – especially when you sell mostly online. Thank you DM for the amazing photos.

To keep packaging as simple as possible, instead of sealing the flap with a sticker, tying a string and then stamping fragile on the box like I’ve always done, this time I used a rubber band to accomplish all things at once!

This is a photo of the Jae candles packed up – but it’s pretty much the same packaging as the mugs.

Note to everybody: Thank YOU for the constant support and love. ~ Re Jin

(See mugs and plates here.)

—–> UPDATE!!! 6/15/2010 The overdue update.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 3:00 PM and is filed under The Biz, The Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.