Memento Mori Mugs

Okay, so my obsession with skulls is pretty well documented, so it’s probably not super surprising to find out that I also very much love sugar skulls. I literally smacked myself in the face for not thinking of it sooner when a customer recently raved about my skull mugs and asked if I could turn them into a sugar skull style with “Memento Mori” (latin for “Remember that you must die,” which is just right up my alley, aesthetic-wise) on the back instead of My Enemy. Such an amazing idea. Thank you, Sara!

In my excitement, I threw ten cups in about two hours on Tuesday. It took me the rest of the week to get them all turned into skull mugs, and so far only the one above has been carved into a sugar skull.

I’m going to be hand-painting the face with underglazes; that’s really the only way for me to get the sugar skull effect right. On the next one, I’m going to apply wax resist before I carve, so that then I can inlay black in the lines more easily. On that note, my new Diamond Core L3 Carving Stylus will be arriving in the mail ANY MINUTE, and I could not be more excited. It should make carving about 1000% easier, and it totally legitimizes me as a potter (that’s only sort of a joke).

One of my students suggested selling them for Cinco De Mayo, which…Yes! Also, I’m thinking they may warrant gold accents. Can’t be too gaudy with a sugar skull, right? Right.