Counting Our Lucky Stars — 2020 Highlights

2020 was an incredible year for our team and our business – equal parts terrifying and inspiring. Through it all our focus has been looking after our team, suppliers and customers while keeping true to our core principles of quality and fairness. We are very fortunate to be making beautiful things for people who appreciate and care about the products.

So here’s our top 12 achievements for the year:

In response to the 2020 Australian bushfires we committed to becoming carbon neutral by the end of the year. This involved a global carbon audit with the South Pole agency, calculating our emissions to offset on exciting regeneration projects. (Stay tuned for an update!)

Launched the very practical oven-to-table Slice Tray which quickly became a best-selling piece.

Partnered with florists Grandiflora in Sydney and Hattie Molloy in Melbourne to deliver messages of gratitude and flowers in Mud this Mother’s Day, for those who couldn’t be together during the lockdown.

The Mud Talks Series was launched on YouTube. Hosted by some of the best, including Annabel Crabb and Jenny Brockie, you can watch past talks during your break here.

Collaborated with the APY Art Centre Collective on an exhibition of 33 hand painted works which sold out in 9 minutes and raised $20,000, with 80% of proceeds going directly to the artists and the remaining 20% towards new projects at the APY Art Centre.

Partnered with the National Gallery of Australia on a limited-edition collection inspired by the works of seminal painter and printmaker Margaret Preston.

As an ode to our four-legged friends who helped keep us sane during lockdown, we launched the #MudMutts campaign and received the most beautiful fluffy entrants with their Mud collections.

Created a Visual Essay series, partnering with creatives such as Anna Pogossova, Ruby Mary Lennox and Becca Crawford on their interpretation of Mud.

Studio relocation! Although it was only a few streets to shift, the effort was monumental and now we have the room and space to grow in 2021 and beyond. The new space features rainwater tanks, a vegetable and herb garden, with a 100kw solar system due for installation early 2021.

Introduced our new sustainable packaging made in Australia from 100% recycled materials and water-based inks that can be either reused, recycled or disposed of in your backyard compost.

We launched a long-time dream of Shelley’s, the Shelley Simpson Ceramics Prize – a $10,000 prize for final year arts students working in the medium of ceramics. We’re excited to announce the shortlist in January, and winning recipient in February in 2021.

Finally, we managed to grow as a company and keep our global Mud family of 100 busy and well throughout the year – with a big thanks to you for your ongoing support.