How a Handmade Yunomi Cup Is Thrown

A yunomi is a Japanese form: a tall cup without a handle, made for everyday tea. It is one of the most honest shapes a potter can make, because there is nothing to hide behind. No handle, no lid, no decoration that can distract from the wall itself. If the weight is wrong, you feel it the first time you pick it up.

In my studio in Iceland, yunomi are thrown one at a time from stoneware. Each begins as a weighed ball of clay, usually somewhere between 300 and 400 grams depending on how tall the finished cup should stand after firing. Clay shrinks as it dries and again in the kiln, so the thrown form is always larger than the cup you finally hold.

Centering

Everything starts with centering. The ball of clay is pressed onto the wheel head and forced into the middle of the spinning wheel with steady pressure from both hands. Off-center clay wobbles, and a wobble at this stage becomes an uneven rim later. Centering looks calm from the outside. It is actually the most physical part of the work: the clay pushes back, and you hold it still until it gives in.

You know the clay is centered when it runs under your hands without movement — the surface feels motionless even though the wheel is turning. Only then does the actual cup begin.

Opening and pulling the wall

The centered clay is opened with the thumbs or fingertips, leaving enough thickness in the base for trimming later. Then the wall is pulled: fingers inside and outside the cylinder, meeting through the clay, moving slowly upward. Each pull thins and raises the wall. A yunomi usually takes three or four pulls.

The proportions matter more than any measurement. A yunomi is taller than it is wide, but not by much — a form that sits securely on the table and still feels slender in the hand. The rim is finished with a light touch or a strip of chamois so it will be soft against the lip. A hard, sharp rim can spoil an otherwise good cup.

Why no handle

A handleless cup asks you to notice the temperature of what you are drinking. If the tea is too hot to hold, it is too hot to drink. That is the practical logic behind the form, and it changes how the cup is used: you hold it with both hands, you slow down slightly, you pay attention.

It also means the wall thickness has to be right. Too thin and the cup burns your fingers; too thick and it feels dead. Getting that balance is most of the skill in this form — I wrote more about that in what makes a handmade cup feel good in the hand.

After the wheel

The thrown cup dries to leather hard, is trimmed, dried fully, bisque fired, glazed, and fired again to stoneware temperature. Every stage can change or ruin the piece, which is one reason no two handmade cups are ever identical.

Finished yunomi from the studio appear in the current collection when they are ready. Each one is photographed individually, because each one is its own object — not a copy of a prototype.