Saturday night, Fired Up! ceramics studio will be putting breast to pottery in its seventh annual Boob Print Night.
Studio owner, Janna Gisler, was inspired to start the fundraising event in 2014 after watching her mother battle breast cancer.
Gisler said she was at the studio one day talking with staff about the many baby feet and hands people ask to have printed on pottery, when the idea came to her. As they began joking about all the other body parts people could smush onto pottery pieces, Gisler realized that “boob prints” would be a perfect way to have fun and raise breast cancer awareness.
“It kind of takes a really serious topic like breast cancer and puts a fun spin on it,” she said.
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The idea of a boob print is really quite simple explained Gisler. “Not much unlike a hand print, one paints on their breast the colour they would like and then presses it onto a piece of pottery.”
People can press their breasts against any number of pottery items — plates, bowls, beer steins, Christmas ornaments and coasters. Then, it’s up to their imagination how they want to transform those prints into works of art.
Gisler and her mom, Laura Malo, said some of their favourites have been a set of blue-footed boobies, a pair of owl “hooters” and puffer fish.
“They’re the breast,” joked general manager, Kristin Godwin.
This year, because of COVID-19 restrictions, Fired Up! has stretched Boob Print Night into a week of virtual evening events, all culminating in the official print night Oct. 24.
Anyone interested in partaking can order their kit on the Fired Up! website and pick it up in store before Saturday evening. Half of all the kit sales are donated to the Canadian Breast Cancer Society and all of Saturday’s participants will be entered to win a grand prize.
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Since Gisler started Boob Print Night six years ago, they have raised over $2,000 for breast cancer research. This year, Gisler is hoping to raise $1,000.
“While my mom is an incredible warrior, the turmoil that cancer brought to our family needs to be talked about,” she said. “It’s my hope that through research we might be able to bring better treatment options to patients.”
More information about Boob Print Night can be found on the Fired Up! website.
Do you have a story tip? Email: jane.skrypnek@blackpress.ca.
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