Comments about Art Boards Handmade Glass Mullers:

I was concerned after having read the review about the quality of the muller that the other person experienced. However, since it's so difficult to find mullers and that Blick has such a good customer support system, I decided to take the chance. The muller I received was impeccable. The bottom surface is perfect and, in fact, I cannot find a flaw in it at all.

I can't speak about the size of the hand grip on the medium-size muller but the size of the large one is ideal. One reason I got the large one is the weight. The heavier the muller, the more work it does instead of my hand. I don't have a problem recommending this to anyone serious about working with dry pigment.

Comments about Art Boards Handmade Glass Mullers:

I purchased the medium-sized muller, which is adequate: it grinds and disperses pigment fine. Its size for the price is rather more generous than other competing mullers. However, there are a couple of flaws--or rather a great many of them. Since this is a handcrafted object, a handblown piece of glass, I expected some flaws. I did not expect a dozen of them. There's a flaw of one kind or another in every inch of this muller--an indentation in the glass, a bubble, or most aggravating of all (since it changes the texture in an uncomfortable way) a half-opened bubble on the surface. Other than the half-opened bubble, these are generally all cosmetic flaws and don't affect performance.

But there's another major problem with the piece I bought (medium): the handle isn't large enough to comfortably accommodate any but small hands. I don't have especially large hands (probably average male), yet when I grab the handle, my forefinger and thumb don't fit. I can still use the muller, but the design-flawed handle means I have to contort my hand. I stated earlier that this piece grinds and disperses pigment well--it does, but only if you need to do it for a short time. Anyone who doesn't have a small hand who needs to do more than 10 minutes of mulling will find this muller very uncomfortable to work with. If the makers had merely extended the handle by 3/4" or 1", it would have addressed this very obvious design flaw.

In short, I'd only recommend this muller for people with small hands--and a subset of them who are willing to put up with an extraordinary number of visual flaws. I'm debating whether to return the muller, owing to the various quality issues (if I didn't urgently need one, there's no question I'd return it).