Face Jugs for Charity!

Recently my two kids have become impressively philanthropic. In fact, they decided they wanted to earn an allowance just so they could donate it all to charity. Strange, right? Actually, I\'ve been so proud by all this beneficence that I was left thinking, what the heck am I doing for others??? After much discussion and research, we decided that Operation Smile is the perfect charity for us. Operation Smile collects doctors and surgeons from around the world who willingly donate their time and skills to help heal children with cleft lip, cleft palate, and other facial deformities. makes it really difficult to place links on the postings, but if you simply type in Operation Smile in your browser you can learn more about what the organization does and how it uses your donations. We will donate every cent earned from this jug to the charity. Come on people, a offer on this jug will truly change the life of a child!

The jug is a portrait of a smiling child. It is around 8\" tall. The glaze is a homemade manganese glaze and a homemade coal black. I have inscribed Operation Smile 2014 on the back of the jug. The plan is to make one of these a year. This is number 1. The jug is signed and dated on the bottom. It is in perfect or mint condition.

I am a high school English teacher. For the past few years I have had my twelfth graders work on a project in the last quarter where they have to teach themselves something new--a new skill? Hobby? Trade? The sky is the limit. This year I decided I would share with them something that I taught myself about six years ago--pottery. I made a 60 second video on YouTube showing how I turn that glob of goo into a face jug.

A year or so ago I was contacted by writer/director Chad Crawford Kinkle, who had just won Slamdance\'s top prize for best horror script, to make around 20 face jugs for his film. The film is currently scaring the pants off of viewers in festivals here and abroad. News is that it was just picked up by a distributor, so start looking for it around July. I included a still and a shot of the new poster to show my pots acting their scariest.

To see more, please check out my website. Google: theyankeepotter.

Thanks for looking.Who made this?
My name is Jason Mahlke, and I am a self taught potter. I turn the pots in my basement, create thefaces at my kitchen table, and fire them in my garage. I admire theSouthern potters like the Meaders and Hewell families. Their pottery always features such solid,graceful forms with crude but expressive faces. But I am also drawn to thesophisticated and lifelike looks of some of Wallace Martin\'s face jugsand grotesques. I think I\'m beginning to get close to capturing thatsort of impossible balance. I mainly use Georgia clay because of its heavy grog. This gives the jars the sandy texture that you would find inthe Southern stoneware. I make jugs, jars, coffee cups, salt & pepper holders...pretty much anything that can serve as some sort of container.