Puzzle Jugs

[Irakusa]

I was researching some possible Welsh ties to my family name, looking up Welsh culture and customs, and came across mention of the puzzle jug. Didn't know what it was, so I looked it up and found a nice video of making one. Looks like the inventors were certainly enjoying their craft! 

http://www.artbabble.org/video/chipstone/michelle-erickson-making-puzzle-jug

Here's the part that got me curious, from http://www.britannia.com/wales/culture1.html. 

"On Nos Galan Gaeaf in Montgomeryshire, in many farmhouses, a mash was made of nine ingredients: potatoes, carrots, turnips, peas, parsnips, leeks, pepper, salt and new milk. In the mash was hidden a wedding ring. The young maidens of the local village would dig into the mash with their wooden spoons, anxious to learn their fate, for the one who found the ring would be first married. In Carmarthenshire, the mash of nine ingredients, stwmp naw rhyw, was not used to foretell the future, but nine girls used to meet to make a pancake containing nine ingredients. This was then divided among the girls and eaten. Before morning, each girl would have a vision of her future husband. In many parts of North Wales, where the custom of bundling was a very common practice (much frowned upon by the English judiciary) the young dreamers would often find their future husband in bed with them!! Along with the mash, or the pancakes, came the wassail bowl. The wassail was often put inside a puzzle jug, with many spouts, and the unsuspecting drinker would find himself doused with beer, wine, or cider by drinking from the wrong spout. Some of these puzzle jugs can now be seen at the National Folk Museum of Wales at St. Ffagan, near Cardiff. The custom is very similar to one observed by the author in southwest Germany, where participants in a contest drank out of a large glass boot that had to be handled a certain way to prevent spillage."

[Marvin Kitshaw]

Hi

Just to add a few more details. 

The welsh men of the time would carve intricate wooden love spoons for their would be loves. 

And I think the wassail was a type of drink. A mulled cider drink usually drunk after the harvest.  

Marv Kitshaw 

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[Fredrick Paget]

I have made a few of these. I found it hard to keep the tubular
passageways open through the firing . I found that wet noodles made
a fine inclusion as they shrank with the drying clay and burned out
in the firing. Japanese udon are the best I could find as they are
fairly large. If you are good at pulling noodles by hand you can
make thicker ones, Boil them before use as raw noodle is sticky and
weak to a certain extent.
Fred
--
Twin Dragon Studio
Mill Valley, CA, USA

[Lee In Mpls, MN]

On Saturday, December 14, 2013 11:06:43 PM UTC-6, freddiebill wrote:

I have made a few of these. I found it hard to keep the tubular
passageways open through the  firing . I found that wet noodles made

Do you have any photos? 

[Fredrick Paget]

I have some , I think, but they are burried in a lifetime
accumulation of photographs and I can't lay my hands on them. I have
found that the digital photos are harder to organize. It is too new
and the media you chose 10 years ago is antique now and the media of
last year is going to be the same in 10 years from now. Can you
access a 3 inch floppy any more? How about a Zip Disc or soon a CD?
The cloud? How permanent is that?
Fred Paget

>On Saturday, December 14, 2013 11:06:43 PM UTC-6, freddiebill wrote:
>
>I have made a few of these. I found it hard to keep the tubular
>passageways open through the firing . I found that wet noodles made
>

>Lee wrote.

>Do you have any photos?
>

[jeanne wood]

For the hollow handles, I throw spouts like teapot spouts only smaller at the base and much longer, then I cut them off the wheel head and carefully pull them like pulling a handle. This works very well for me.

~Jeanne W.