mug shots

steph's mug

This is my mug. I dont use it much, because I dont like coffee much (and when I drink coffee it's espresso, so I use a small espresso cup instead). Lately I used it to drink tea (jasmine green or earl gray, my favorites), but in the summer it's too hot for that.

Someone gave it to me as a birthday present, I dont even remember who... When I saw it I thought "Now, that's a boring birthday present...".

Still I kind of like it because it's shiny white in the outside and pinkish in the inside, which is kind of weird, in an inside-out way. It also has some "(cheap) minimalist designer" quality to it, I think, the lines are more straight than you'd expect or something...

Overall I'd say that it is nothing to write home about, but hey, it's my mug so... whatever...



sissy's mug

This is my coffee mug. It’s not the only one I have or the only one I use; it remains my favorite precisely because I betray it on occasion (familiarity breeds contempt and all that). I’ve had it for at least seven years. I don’t remember exactly when I got it, nor is there any quaint or sentimental story behind its acquisition. I must have bought it in a thrift shop (where else?) because I liked it.

I like its subtle colors -- neither brown nor blue, somehow slate gray and not gray at all, neither bright nor dark in natural light -- and its overall irregularity, of shape, of glaze, of execution. It’s so obviously handmade, so human. It has no false front.

Ceramics would have been my art, if I were any good at art. It’s thrown on a wheel; its clay walls are controlled, thin, and relatively even -- it’s better than most beginners can do. But its foot is unfinished, unsigned, unglazed, thick, totally amateur.

It’s squat. It’s sturdy. It has a low center of gravity. Its handle allows for a solid, steady two-fingered grip. Its round belly holds more than you’d think and keeps the contents hot. But its thin lip is always cool
upon contact
with mine.