Lafayette Avenue Ceramics Handmade Ceramic Squeeze Cup

3 reviews

As an academically trained potter, who loves supporting woman-owned businesses and lead-free ceramics (as this is very important and hard to come by), I was sadly very disappointed by the quality of the squeeze cups I received (one "coral," the other “dock” - the latter is a beautiful glaze btw). The quality control of this squeeze cup design needs serious help. It does not represent standards potters strive to achieve that are important to the field of pottery and customer satisfaction. First, the walls are far too thick and the cup is just too heavy. The “dock” cup I received does not have a flat bottom, but rather one that wobbles. Either trimming skills are lacking or the mold needs improvement. The glazing is careless with the “coral” cup, with scuffs and drips that are not aesthetically pleasing but look like it was “made in a hurry.” I am a huge fan of organic manipulation of clay with fingers/tools/stretching/warping, yet this is not that. Instead this is a quality control issue. Drips are fine when used in contrast, but these drips are nothing more than laziness when dip glazing. Also, there is a small chip in the glaze, which indicates it occurred after the second firing and should have been caught before shipping out. I wonder if I received “seconds” as the quality of these cups are shocking to me to be sold on a mainstream website and from the artists themselves. I checked Lafayette Avenue Ceramics' website first before buying, and between that and EarthHero, I never expected to receive such poor quality products. Last thought, the squeezed indents are not universal in size in the slightest - fits my hand fine, but I have smaller hands. My partner cannot hold the cup as intended (and as such has no desire to now use them) as the squeezed areas are not big enough for his fingers. This is just something that I feel like should have been considered in advance to sell on a scaled market. Overall, totally disappointed this item cannot be returned - as it will be an “okay” flower vase at most, and most likely given away. It pains me to write this because I don’t love bashing fellow potters, and this just feels like it's being mass produced at a low quality to deceive buyers and disservice other potters out there who are putting in serious effort to make quality ceramics to try to make a living wage. Yikes!!

These cups are a work of art!

Comfortable wabi-sabi