Follow The Bouncing Ball

Susan was out walking and came across a pile of stuff by a garbage can. We are definitely not opposed to "dumpster diving" or local pass-by recycling. This was part of a giant ball of some sort, bigger than a beach ball and made of hard rubber stuff. What is it ???? When she got home she got her car (yeah, the Toyota) and drove back to pick it up.

I whacked it into pieces and am trying it out on small cups that I'm making. They are small and imprecise because I consider them "test tiles" which I am firmly opposed to making. Why? I don't like test tiles because I'm too impatient and just want to gamble on the whole thing. Since they are small, if the glaze treatment isn't what I wanted then I haven't wasted a lot of clay or time and they can just go in the garden. Or maybe someday, on Etsy.

Anyway, I'm going for a sort of organic look.

Late Edit for a follow-up to comments:

People, let's think outside the cup!

In my house little cups hold pencils, they hold toothpicks, they hold Exacto knives (one is never enough), they hold string, they hold toothbrushes, they hold marbles, they hold small bones, they hold coins, they hold spare eyeglasses, and sometimes, they just sit there, waiting to be admired.

A test tile is just a flat boring piece of clay you paint glaze on to see what happens. The result is what happens on a flat surface (although you can make sort of vertical test tiles in an upside-down 7 shape). I want to know what the glaze does when it runs down, when it has to make a turn, when it goes against a bump and piles up. Therefore, I make funky irregular little cups to test glazes on. That's the plan now, anyway. Later I might make more mushrooms. Or pods. Or baby boots. Or anything but boring flat test tiles.

And finally, a cup with holes in it will give you a way to share your drink with those nearby.

Thank you, Sherry and Marie, for pointing out the puzzler and giving me a chance to explain better.