clay

Working in clay is not for those who don’t like to get dirty! But the feel of “mud” and the results of modeling and forming are well worth the mess. My preferred method of working is hand building, using coils and slabs to build and form jugs, small houses, shrines, and garden totem poles

I spent more than 30 years as a critical care/emergency nurse - very serious business indeed. Making these definitely-not-serious face jugs is a wonderful antidote to that career. The fact that the jugs themselves are hand built (as opposed to thrown or turned) only adds to their whimsical nature.

There is evidence of some kind of “face jug” in most cultures. The tradition of Southern face jugs includes their use as storage vessels for moonshine - their ugly faces were intended to scare children from sampling the drink! Ugly face jugs were also used as grave markers by Southern slaves as a way to scare off evil spirits. Whatever their origin, they do seem to find their way into many peoples’ hearts.