Mugs are the are the most common thing sold by me. When I make them, I try to make each one about six inches tall by about four inches wide. Before trimming and attachments, the main part of the body weighs about one and a half pounds.
The thumb rest that I use developed from a stopgap measure that I used to keep handles from falling off my pieces as they dried during my apprenticeship. As my skills as a potter increased, I no longer needed the bar of clay.However, I found that the bar gave a nice control of the piece as well as giving a nice visual finish to the top of the mug.
Attached to the thumb rest is the handle. it should be big enough to get fingers around, but not too large as to be unwieldy. I also try to make about a quater of an inch clearance between the tips of the fingers and the wall of the mug to prevent hot liquids from burning the hand.
I Like to smooth the bottoms of my piece because I don’t feel that it is right to have the majority of the piece smooths and refined with a crude unfinished end I will also push the bottom concave so that the piece will smoothly rest on a table.