What 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, 2022, 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 undefeated mug 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 January 15th, 2022.

How 64 Mugs are Chosen

After entries close, our incredible jurors and "team captains", Brandon Peña (link) and Didem Mert (link) 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 a share of 3 points. Each juror assigns one point, and the final point is assigned by the result of an Instagram poll. 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.

The undefeated mug 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.

MEET THE JURORS

Brandon Peña

@_brandon_pena_
Mug Madness 2021 Artist Choice Award Winner

I am excited to be included as a juror for this year’s Mug Madness! As a former participant, I feel that Mug Madness is an exciting opportunity for artists to showcase their work, and have it be seen and interacted with by the public in a fun way. One of the coolest things about this competition is that because of the format, it appeals even to people outside of the ceramics community. Through my participation in Mug Madness, many of my friends and family members discovered many artists whose work they now love, and it gave them a greater appreciation for handmade pottery. The mugs in this competition represent a diverse group of artists, and showcase a variety of techniques and making processes. I am beyond excited to see all of the submissions for Mug Madness 2022!

Didem Mert

@didemmert_pottery

The Mug Madness show at Saltstone Ceramics is by far one of the most fun, thrilling, engaging, creative, and beautiful shows that I’ve enjoyed observing and being a part of, through voting, for the past few years! Saltstone Ceramics has taken the basic format of a cup show and transformed it into a lighthearted competition to bring the ceramics community and its admirers together to play along in the jurying process. I mean, how genius is that? I’m very excited to jury the show with Brandon Peña and we cannot wait to see your applications!

Every year, hundreds of mugs from all over the world are submitted for consideration in our exciting tournament. Check out the Mug Madness Hall of Fame (link) to see previous team rosters, record holders, and more.