everybody raise a glass

We placed an order with a supplier we haven't used in over a year, and we got these really cute mugs. They were fairly inexpensive, and nicer than the ones of comparable price, and since we still had a truck load at the time, I bought up a bunch.   

These were all taken before the mug was fired. There are five owls total, and I used a technique on the tree and sky called s'graffito, where several layers of a base coat are applied and incised with a design, over which a second color is applied, then wiped off down to the first color. It's a little more apparent post-firing because right now the blues look almost the same. 

 This is probably the most striking s'graffito example on the whole piece, but you can tell looking at the tree that cross-hatching was done for texture. I'm not sure if I'm going to give this one away yet or not. I still have two more blank mugs. I may make another one and decide then.