Photograph courtesy of Molly Sanyour
“Is that what I think it is?” I ask Molly Sanyour as she sips wine from a white mug in her studio.
“Rosé?” she replies.
“No, the mug!”
Sculpted into a perfect replica of a voluptuous behind, it is one of Sanyour’s now-famous butt mugs, the first of which she created in 2018 and gifted to singer-rapper Lizzo before her concert. Then a high school ceramics teacher in Richmond, Virginia, Sanyour forgot all about the mug until a year later, when her students spotted it in a Lizzo photo shoot for Vogue. Shortly thereafter, the butt mug appeared in a Dove body-positivity campaign on Instagram, with Lizzo using it to cover her bare breast, and then again on TikTok, where she filmed herself scooping soup with it.
Fans quickly took notice of the bodacious pottery. Even without an official shout-out from Lizzo, internet sleuths connected the butt mugs back to Sanyour, and suddenly, orders were flooding in. Still teaching high school, Sanyour began mass-producing the mugs to keep up with demand.
In 2023, after attending an inspiring clay conference, Sanyour decided to make good on her long-held dream of opening a ceramics studio. Around the same time, her boyfriend suggested she join him in Atlanta, where he was producing and directing a show for Cartoon Network. “I’m an entrepreneur at heart, and you only live once,” says Sanyour. “So I thought, Let’s do this!”
Two years later, Molly Sanyour Ceramics Studio is finally open. Located just off the Westside Beltline in Adair Park, the gleaming 2,300-square-foot studio boasts high-end ceramics equipment such as kilns and slab rollers. “It’s my dream studio,” Sanyour says. There, she hosts parties, events, and corporate workshops, as well as classes for various ages and skill levels. On Sundays, she offers open-studio time, when the ceramic curious can stop in and learn more.
Sanyour, who loves sharing her work on social media, also created a special room in her studio where she will soon relaunch her Instagram Live series called Throwing with Molly. On the show, which is inspired by Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, she invites guests to sit side by side with her—usually accompanied by tea or coffee in a handmade mug—to chat as they make pottery.
As on Cohen’s show, Sanyour answers audience questions live (albeit virtually) and laughs a lot. She began the series in 2017 in Virginia; her guests have included former NFL linebacker Wali Rainer and Richmond entrepreneur Kelli Lemon, and she has big plans for a new Atlanta-based season.
“I want to get the mayor [Andre Dickens], and Seth Rogen—did you know he loves pottery?” she exclaims. “I feel like the gates were just opened and there’s so much ahead of me. I can’t wait!”
This article appears in our July 2025 issue.
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