FaceJuggs

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Comment by Milt on March 2, 2010 at 1:43pm

Thanks for the comments. I am a very proud papa. She has worked hard trying to perfect her craft and has many beautiful pieces in addition to the comical looking face jugs. The potter (google Alewine pottery) she has worked for over the last decade has been a good teacher and mentor. I think, now, he is trying to nudge her gently out of the nest to make her fly on her own.

There are several stories of the history of the face jug. The origins of the face jug tradition are mysterious. One story of the History of Face Jugs goes like this:

In the past people put moonshine in pottery jugs. Children had a habit of getting into everything including this moonshine. Therefore, the potters put ugly faces on the jugs in order to scare the children away from the moonshine.

Another story is that the ugly faces were made on the jugs and put at grave sites to scare the evil spirits away. According to oral history, African slaves were not allowed to have tombstones on their graves, therefore family members would place personal items on the graves to honor the departed loved one. It seems that a merging of voodoo and Christianity may have also come into play. Apparently, it was believed that if the face was ugly enough, it would scare the devil away from the grave so the parted soul could go to heaven.


The tradition of pottery with faces dates back to Egyptian times and appears in many other cultures throughout the ages. The first vessel created in the US is recorded to have been created by an unknown Massachusetts potter around 1810. Today, face jugs are prized by collectors around the world for their comical and sometimes sinister facial expressions.

For further information about the history of face jugs: http://www.blackpotter.com/

Comment by Liv on March 2, 2010 at 9:44am

Hey,
very nice work, very creative .

Comment by Terri on March 2, 2010 at 8:04am

Your daughter's very talented! I have seen jugs of this type before in my travels. I think there's a name for them..not sure though.