Introducing Mug of the Month Artist, January 2026: Brandon Peters

Reserve Your January Mug today!

When the Guild began selecting Member Artists for the 2026 Mug of the Month program, Brandon Peters quickly rose to the top of the list as someone they were eager to see more work from. As half of the Peters Pottery team, Brandon often leans into the technical side of the craft, while his pottery shop partner and spouse, Kathleen, brings their forms to life through sculpting, handwork, and expressive surface design.

In March 2025, Peters Pottery presented a Mug of the Month collection shaped by Kathleen’s clay journey, with a spotlight on her growth and artistic voice. For 2026, the Guild saw an opportunity to invite Brandon into the foreground—inviting him to design and build an inspired, limited-edition mug series of his own, with creative collaboration and support from Kathleen along the way.

Learn More about their March 2025 Mug Here

You can find more information about Peters Pottery Shop via Facebook & Instagram. Their pottery is available for purchase via their website www.peterspotteryshop.com Any questions or inquiries can be directed to peterspotteryshop@gmail.com. 

Images from Peters Pottery Studio in Kittanning, PA and Market Days

January 2026 Mug of the Month: Meshaw Falls Memory

When Brandon first began to conceptualize a Mug of the Month personal to him, he wasn’t quite sure where to begin. As he thought it over, he kept coming back to the outdoors, fishing, hunting, and time spent outside have shaped his life since childhood. That reflection sent him digging through old photos, where he rediscovered images from a fishing trip to Canada on the French River. One picture in particular stood out: an abandoned wooden shack sitting at the base of a waterfall at Meshaw Falls.

The January design grows directly from that memory. Brandon’s vision is a mug that feels grounded in stone and water: the base will appear to rest in a bed of rocks, while the handle is sculpted as worn wooden planks echoing the old shack. A deep, dark blue glaze will evoke the river and falling water. Alongside this piece, Brandon has shared photos from that Canada trip and a few from recent trout outings with his oldest son, a thread that connects past adventures to new ones as he passes his love of the outdoors on to his children.

Cousin, uncle, brother, grandfather, Brandon and his father ; Meshaw Falls; Son, Mason

Goals and Challenges

This mug presents Brandon with a set of challenges he’s excited to tackle. The first is the handle: he wants the wooden planks to read as truly aged, complete with the look of rusty screws. That will mean experimenting with different sculpting approaches and surface treatments until the balance of texture, color, and form feels right. The second challenge is the rocky base. To get the realism he’s after, Brandon plans to collect stones from local trout streams and use them to create a rock mold.

While he regularly makes plaster molds for his medallion logo mugs, he has not yet created sprig molds from natural materials. This project is his opportunity to change that. One of his main goals for the Mug of the Month is to develop his own sprig mold using river stones and other found textures, then carry that new technique forward into future mug designs. In that way, this piece isn’t just a tribute to Meshaw Falls—it’s also a step in Brandon’s ongoing growth as both a maker and a storyteller in clay. 

Early design concepts

Reserve Your January Mug today!