Having seen the impact mental health has had on the people around her, Elizabeth Bell knew she wanted to do her part to get behind Movember this month.
Movember is an annual event held through November, where often men grow their moustaches to raise money and awareness for men’s health, including mental health and prostate and testicular cancer.
But unable to grow a moustache herself, Elizabeth had to get creative with her fundraising.
And when she came across an antique tea cup at her husband’s grandmother’s home earlier this year, she knew she had a winning idea.
“Around that pre-World War I time, most men used to have moustaches and they used to put wax in them,” Elizabeth said.
“But when they would drink tea and things like that, their wax would melt and drip into the drink.
“So they came up with these moustache tea cups, which had a guard built into them to cover their moustaches while they drank.
“I’d never heard of them before, but Jordan, my husband, his grandmother has this beautiful old one and we sat it at the start of the year.
“It was so cool and so I did a bit of research on it because I’d never seen anything like it before.
“I knew straight away that it was something I could try.”
The tea cups, known as moustache cups were invented in England in the 1860s when moustaches were common, to keep men’s moustaches dry and clean while drinking.
They were commonly used until the 1910s, but began to fall out of favour when moustaches began to fall out of fashion.
Today the Victorian era cups are popular collectors’ items.
A well-known local ceramic artist, Elizabeth decided to create her own modern version of the cups to raise money for Movember, and Mo Mugs were born.
“Every ceramic artist is making mugs and vases and tumblers and all that sort of stuff, but this is something a little bit different and I knew I wanted to have a go,” she said.
“It was probably back in May that I started making my first prototypes just to see how I could get it to work.
“I was making one every now and then in between my other orders just to see what worked and so it took a long time to find the final design … it was a lot of fun and a good little project.
“They were all tested by Jordan along the way and we found when I sat the moustache guard on top of the mug, it wasn’t as comfortable to drink from.
“So then I had to find a way to sit the guard in the mug, which isn’t hard itself, but you have to support it while it’s drying or else the moustache began to sag in the middle.
“I’m glad I started thinking about it so early, because it took a bit of time to figure it all out.”
Elizabeth originally started with a small batch of the mugs, which take weeks to make by hand, but said she had been blown away by the support.
“The body is just a cylinder that I make on my wheel … I could probably make up to 50 of those in a day,” she said.
“They get made first because they need to dry for two days before they can be picked up and handled.
“My husband is an architect, so he’s quite good on the 3D printer and he made me what is pretty much a cookie cutter in the shape of a moustache.
“Once the cylinder is dry, I then put the handle on and the moustache in the top of the mug and then they’re in the kiln at 1000 degrees [Celsius].
“Then I dip them in glaze and back into the kiln at 1280 degrees.
“Each firing takes two days, so it all adds up and it takes quite a bit of time to make them.
“I put a couple of sneak peeks up on my Instagram along the way but I didn’t really know what to expect.
“I made about 50, and I only have a handful left, the response has been really good.
“It’s about 50-50 between guys buying them for themselves or their mates, which is very nice, and people buying them for their partners or their dads.
“I’m planning to make another 50 or 100, but it will depend how things go. There’ll be a certain date that I’ll have to cut it off because I won’t be able to get them to people by the end of my November, while they’ve still got their moustaches.”
Elizabeth said 25 per cent of the proceeds from each mug went to the Movember Foundation.
“I’d love to raise $1000, which would be awesome,” she said.
“So far, I’m probably at about $600, but I’m also doing Move for Movember where you run or walk 60 kilometres [for the 60 men lost to suicide every hour] every day for the month.
“It’s not very strenuous, but it’s doable for someone like me who doesn’t exercise at all – those two kilometres are more than enough for me.”
Elizabeth said the Movember cause was particularly close to her heart.
“I think that whole conversation around men’s mental health is really important, especially after the couple of years we’ve just had and being in lockdown,” she said.
“It’s important to make sure the boys are comfortable to talk about what’s going on, because it’s just as tough for them as it is for us girls.
“We’ve lost a couple of mates from suicide. Two really good mates of ours, [both] under 30, committed suicide a few years ago.
“I know my husband and our mates are really good at talking to each other and checking on each other, but not everyone is.
“I think it’s perceived that men are tough and they’ve got to be the strong ones.
“But I think it is so important to talk about how they’re feeling, which isn’t how it always is.
“I know from my experience, we’ve got a young daughter, she’s under two, and when we first had her, everyone was always checking in and asking me how I was going.
“But it was always directed at me and never at Jordan as well.
“So I think that’s quite important, especially with young families … the guys have stresses and need to talk too.”
Elizabeth said this year was the first time she had used her ceramics as a fundraiser, but she was hoping to make it a regular thing.
“I’ve only been in my studio since the start of the year so this is the first fundraiser I’ve done,” she said.
“But I definitely want to do more … I’ll try and do maybe two a year and pick different charities.
“I’m thinking I would like to do one around Mother’s Day and do a breast cancer awareness kind of thing, but I’m not sure on the product yet.”
Details: elizabethbellceramics.com.
