Mug Madness 2026
Get Ready to Fight!
Join us for our 7th annual Mug Madness tournament, where 64 mugs compete for a $500 top prize and the title of Mug Madness Champion!
Whether you enter your mug and fight for a team spot, or follow along on Instagram, this is your chance to be a part of our next-level mug championship. Read on for more information about Mug Madness!
Voting begins March 1st on Instagram stories @saltstoneceramics!
Entry TicketsWhat is Mug Madness?
Mug Madness is a single-elimination bracket-style tournament, where 64 mugs compete for the top prize and title of Mug Madness Champion. Entries are open to all, regardless of age, location, or skill level.
The tournament will begin on March 1st, 2026, with matches taking place every day on our Instagram and in our Instagram stories. Friends, family, and followers are encouraged to participate by voting for their favorite mug. The last mug standing at the end of the tournament wins the $500 top prize.
How to Enter
To enter your mug into the tournament, just purchase an entry ticket. Each entrant will be invited to submit a photo and information about their mug. Each entry is $10, with no limit to the number of submissions. So send one, send all!
Be sure to read the full tournament rules here. The open call for entries closes on December 14th, 2025.
How 64 Mugs are Chosen
After entries close, our incredible Team Captains, Kirsty Kash and Gabs Conway, will each choose 32 mugs out of the pool of submissions to be included on their team. In addition to being featured in the tournament, selected artists will be invited to send their mugs to Seattle, WA to be included in our Mug Madness gallery show. Each mug will be displayed at Saltstone Ceramics for the month of March and will be available for purchase. So keep an eye on your favorites!
How to Win
In each match, mugs are competing to win votes on Instagram. Matches will be posted to our Instagram stories, where followers will be able to vote for their favorite mug. To win, promote your mugs on IG and encourage your friends, family, and followers to participate! If your mug wins the match, you advance to the next round.
This year, we're shaking things up! Competitors are no longer also vying for votes from the Team Captains in each round, and each match winner will be solely determined by the Instagram poll. Instead, we're adding a Wild Card Round! When 4 mugs are left, each Team Captain will get to grant a second chance to two mugs from their team by bringing them back to compete again.
The last mug standing at the end of the tournament wins a $500 dollar grand prize and the title of Mug Madness Champion. The runner-up will win a $100 cash prize.
Do you have what it takes to be the next Mug Madness Champion? Enter your mugs today!
Entries close on December 14th, 2025.
Entry TicketsMEET THE TEAM CAPTAINS
Kirsty Kash
@kirstykash
"Mugs are art in motion. We carry them with us through the rituals of our day. In Mug Madness, they're also here to compete. I'll be cheering for all of the brave competitors through the tournament but make no mistake, Team Kash is in it to win it!"
Kirsty Kash is a ceramic artist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Working in bright white porcelain, she carves deeply into her forms and inlays them with vibrant gradients of color. Her work is about claiming space to live safely as our true selves. Fascinated by the complexity of ceramics, she celebrates the mug as the ultimate form where daily use and artistic meaning collide.
Gabs Conway
@gabsconwaymakesdirt
“Mug Madness is back in a big way, and Team Gabs is here for it. We can HANDLE anything that is THROWN at us! I encourage the other team to not GLAZE over its competition. With our fancy FOOT work, you better watch your LIP!"
Gabs Conway is a sculptural ceramic artist based in Missoula, Montana. In May of 2021, she earned her BFA, with a concentration in ceramics at the University of Wisconsin - Stout. As of August 2021, she has been a permanent artist and educator for Wildfire Ceramic Studio. Additionally, she is the Outreach Educator for The Clay Studio of Missoula since fall of 2022. Her educational experiences inform her personal work in many ways as she pushes the boundaries of clay; exploring relationships and community, and intrigued by familiarity in the unusual.
This year's logo/graphics designed by Sam Block of Sam Dodie Studio.