Every artist’s journey has a starting point—a moment where an ambitious idea meets the raw reality of the clay. Today, I wanted to take a look back at some of my earlier creative works: a pair of hand-carved, Gundam-inspired tea cups featuring the iconic Zaku and Z’Gok.
Long before I started experimenting with taller canvases and full-body details on larger tumblers, these compact tea cups were my playground for testing how mechanical, sci-fi designs could translate into functional ceramic art.
The Evolution of the Canvas
Looking at these pieces always brings back fond memories of the unique challenges they presented. Unlike a tall tumbler, a rounded tea cup forces you to condense a massive presence into a tight, curved space.
- The Zaku Cup: For this one, the focus was all on that unmistakable, rugged silhouette. Getting the heavy brow line and the prominent mono-eye track carved just right into the clay required careful, deliberate hand-work. The deep, militaristic green glaze perfectly captures that classic grunt-suit grit.
- The Z’Gok Cup: This piece was a fantastic exercise in capturing the sleek, aquatic lines of Zeon’s famous amphibious mobile suit. The bold red and salmon tones immediately evoke the presence of Char’s legendary custom unit, balanced by the stark white and yellow accents along the base armor.
Embracing the Maker’s Journey
There is something incredibly grounding about looking back at your earlier work. These cups represent the initial spark of what has now become a deeply satisfying obsession with bringing anime and manga history to the pottery wheel. They taught me how glazes break over sharp, carved mechanical lines, and how to balance the heavy geometry of a robot with the organic feel of handmade functional ware.
They might have been early steps, but they laid the exact foundation for everything I carve today.