A Salty Mug

According to this post, a woman tried to remove a splinter from her finger by soaking the affected digit in salty water.  She poured hot water and a palmful of sea salt into an earthenware mug, soaked her finger, and that was that.

And a week later… her mug was coated in a salty, oozy crust.  Apparently the sea salt got into the microcracks and fissures of the earthenware mug, causing the mug to extrude noodles of dried salt as one would extrude Play-Doh from a press.

Hey, inspiration for my photographic work comes in a bunch of places, right?

So here’s what I did.

Last June, when I was at my Hamilton College 30th reunion, I took time during the reunion to visit the Village of Clinton, where Hamilton is located.  I walked along the shops of West Park Row, which have all turned into boutiques and artisan stores and the like.  There was an outdoor festival in the town’s main center; I bought some lemonade and some cookies, and watched as the locals performed on the band stage.

Listen – I celebrate my reunions in different ways.  Live with it.

The festival featured some vendors, including a local potter who had some beautiful plates and bowls and cups for sale.  He also had a box of – shall we say – error pieces.  I asked him how much for the small little cup in the box, the one that was glazed on the outside but left raw on the inside.

“Take it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Take it or I’ll charge you for it.”

That’s negotiating skills for sure.

Okay, time to test this out.

Here’s what the little mug looked like when I took it home.

Nice-looking little cup.  Now for the experiment.

I poured boiling hot water in the cup, then added a few handfuls of Kosher sea salt and stirred liberally.

Then I went about my business, leaving the cup and water and salt to cool down and evaporate.

A few days later, I looked at the cup.  There were white cracks in the glaze.  The experiment was working.

And finally, this is what happened after two weeks of leaving super-salinated water in the unglazed interior of this mug.

Holy beachwater, Batman!

The experiment worked – albeit the cup only had one microfracture for the salt to seep through.  but once the salt got into the tiny crevasse, the damage was irreversible.

Ha.

I definitely want to try this again.  I’ll have to contact some ceramics craft stores or potters in the area, see if I can get someone to glaze the outside of a mug and leave the inside raw, and try this experiment again.

This could be fun.

And it could be a future photo project for Competition Season 2016.

What do you think?  Am I on to something cool here?