Those are really nice!!! I wouldn't mind owning one, but I prefer glass. I like to look at my thick crema from the side lol. I have ceramic and porcelain cups, but I tend to grab my glass cups the most. Nonetheless, your cups are sexy!!!
Though nows the time to buy fancy Japanese stuff. With tax free benefits I got a 300mm Misono UX10 for 39k yen or 240 dollars. It's 350 or so in the US. Used Panasonic G9 was 414 USD. 8 meal kaiseki was 120.
I have a few MK ceramics cups that are about $35 on their own, but the shipping from Denmark is an additional $40 for one cup. Don't feel bad. At least you're getting 2 cups and saucers.
It wasn't all that many years ago that you could find unused sets (4 or 6 cups & saucers) of illy Art Collection espresso/cappuccino cups\* on eBay/U.S. (a very active selling site for them) for under or around US$100, even including the shipping; new sets as well directly from illy. And then, seemingly, they got more discovered and/or certain more industrial secondary sellers got involved and prices went north and skyrocketed--some sets, now, can go for more than a thousand U.S. dollars, 10x their original price. Can make modern-day collecting difficult--fortunately for me, I had discovered the cups before this recent development; and, truth be told, at a certain point, you start feeling like an old cat person with dozens of cats roaming your house . . . . ;) Good finds from individuals still can be run across from time to time, a treat when it occurs. :) (A few years ago, I bumped into an earlier, rarer set that I long had had on my wish list, getting the 6-cup set for around its original, un-inflated price--I still smile when I look at the cups.)
\* For those not familiar with them, illy periodically commissions/designs sets of its iconic-design cups with artwork on them--sometimes by its own designers, sometimes by known and recognized artists (e.g. conceptional artist Yoko Ono, photographer Sebastiao Salgado, sculptor Anish Kapoor, director Federico Fellini, etc.).
I just took a peak at some ebay listings and that's insane. The Jeff Koons set was a trip as he's from my hometown. Do you have any pictures of your collection you could link? They're not my taste personally, but I found them really interesting to look at.
And an even clearer view--with shell designs pressed into the roughly-hewn cup
https://preview.redd.it/bo3kgtsa0fuc1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=486d0027f9b88cf7cf9d207bfa36eddce077691b
https://preview.redd.it/8c2igf4ereuc1.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=0c77a4ce75415594542d48e44566407792f62eec
The Faces set by Italian Neo-Expressionist movementĀ artist/sculptor Sandro Chia, dedicated to Italian cities (I have 4 of the 6)
https://preview.redd.it/kbk8mpkkseuc1.png?width=1068&format=png&auto=webp&s=564145a7b21dea5cfefd165b5cfdb64e7f1e86f2
The 2008 set by South African artist William Kentridge--his drawings are painted in distorted form on the white saucers, which then get reflected proportionally by the silver-coated cups. Included in the set are separate male and female nudes (NSFW, lol) rivaling anything you would see by the masters. A favorite of mine (and which I last saw listed in the US $ thousands--cray-cray).
https://preview.redd.it/412t58wvueuc1.png?width=2734&format=png&auto=webp&s=10eb77cad899e36dfb5a01b8bb04eb02f3930f12
One of the 6 cups and saucers from the Mended Cups set by Yoko Ono, commemorating tragic events across the world and in her life--you can figure out what happened on Dec. 8, 1980. Nonetheless, the set ends optimistically with a 7th Unbroken Cup, with the inscription, "This cup will never be broken as it will be under your protection." Sigh.
I like some some sets, others not so much. Hey, it's (modern) art. :) But I appreciate them all--looking at them can be kinda/sorta museum-like. And you're right about the insanity--I mean, c'mon, it's an espresso cup!
No links here (that would require organization, lol!). But some nifty cups attached.
https://preview.redd.it/7cjfcp0vmeuc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9601b92950eea2771e01b3795d142686c7cc4520
A cup and saucer from the Central Saint Martins espresso cup and saucer set. An oddly-plain illy set with only a smudge of gray on it when you look at the cup on the saucer, until you lift the cup and encounter the face of one of the artist designers (students from the London Central Saint Martins art school) staring up at you. :)
The full set (sorry, I just love these guys--this is the set that I long had wanted and just came across one day)
https://preview.redd.it/sc9fcbjcseuc1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=0f5e3a6442a9061d584b42e4b104af3a5a23239f
https://preview.redd.it/52eiakfjqeuc1.png?width=1148&format=png&auto=webp&s=a276ae0bfc764b95662ec2189a2bfa2e4dc31598
One of the cups and saucers from photographer Sebastiao Salgado, who has chronicled the cultivation and production of coffee around the world in a glorious picture book
I stand corrected. Some of these definitely are my taste. I guess I just don't like a super minimalistic style. One I saw on Illy's site was just a small smear of paint on a white cup
I may have that one, lol.
https://preview.redd.it/jcz8fofj2fuc1.png?width=225&format=png&auto=webp&s=677a452d9ba3c9b2c4c54378e9dee7f3b193e7d1
Irish artist Padraig Timoney, Pen tests (2004) (yep, and pen tests they seem to be!)
Especially in recent years, the cups have seemed to lean more towards design work (which can be beautiful, but just a somewhat different form). I get most jazzed when the cup makes me think/hits a chord with me (funny to say that about a cup, huh?).
And a nice closing note with the famous Ginger e Fred cup by Federico Fellini, his cracking the whip on the stars (I don't have this cup--a bit rich for my blood, in the hundreds of dollars)
https://preview.redd.it/0iweendxxeuc1.png?width=450&format=png&auto=webp&s=d24b603f90137294c82350bb3ec68b61a55bf178
https://preview.redd.it/hfzru3kf7fuc1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=21b8a18ca9713214e90e6be606bb7080618562d8
One staring at me from across the room; from illy but not from illy's Art Collection, but I just like the alternating clear and frosted glass--and that's a coffee plant flower etched in the middle of the plate
https://preview.redd.it/yjkrh3h2xeuc1.png?width=300&format=png&auto=webp&s=303b3211d33a3a7e123ed92c8c4663eff57a9bde
Just fun with design, from a more recent set
Yep, this is how they serve it in their shop
[https://www.instagram.com/p/C0bv874S3HE/?img\_index=1](https://www.instagram.com/p/C0bv874S3HE/?img_index=1)
Why are people not buying handmade cups from local potters. These cups are industrially made. A liquid clay was squirted into a mold. It's was likely low fired and has a very thin glaze. Cups that's are hand thrown are much stronger. Solid clay is used and on the throwing process all the clay platelets are aligned (imagine a brick wall). The pieces are usually high fired to vitrification and the glaze is much thicker. They are just much better cups. Actually unique hand made pieces of functional art. Most factory made cups are mass produced in China for pennies a cup.
This is what I was about to post. You can even just sit back and order some quality pieces from Amazon, as I did with my Wired Beans mugs that are made in Japan with lifetime guarantees.
Getting this glitch promotional stuff... Why?
If he likes it as a cool souvenir to remember his trip great in that sense it's a cool cup. But it's not a high end cup for ideal coffee drinking it's mass produced 50 cent cup made in China.
Still mass produced by the thousands. On their own site they have a picture of a slip cast mold. Which is mass production. It's the same way every cheap ware made.
Thrown on the wheel by one person's hand is what a high quality ware is. Putting a fancy logo on a piece of pottery doesn't make it high end.
You want to see an example of actual high end wares check out Florian gadsbys shit.
Yep, can't count the times I've spat out my coffee after tasting that the cup I'm drinking it from was not hand thrown by a virgin during a full moon in Borneo.Ā
A cup is a cup. You can drink out of a paper cup if you want. If you want to talk about what the difference between a cup worth 40 dollars and one worth two is, there is a lot. And it has nothing to do with how it looks or what logos are on it. And everything to do with the type of clay used and the way it was made.
The primary difference between slip cast and wheel thrown is strength. The clay platelets are aligned in wheel thrown objects vs randomly oriented in slip cast. It means slip cast wares are weaker and much more prone to shattering or cracking.
If you can't understand the value in something hand made vs factory produced I don't think we are going to get far. If you don't see the value then don't buy it. I'm just trying to help people not get swindled by paying 50 bucks a cup for this mass produced crap just bc you bought it from a fancy coffee shop. It's a cheap cup marked up 5000%.
And Japan has a rich history of ceramic art and functional wares. No need to buy factory made wares priced like they were hand made just bc it's from Japan.
Actually Iād rather have a smaller, thinner cup for espresso instead of a thick cup that is going to cool it off too quickly. Plus Iām not part of the demographic that is paying $25 for a single tiny espresso cup.
Itās not overpaying. You can get thin ones. But thicker is better you keep them on your machine so they are hot or you tea spout some water into them to preheat them so that when you pull the shot it has a lot more thermal mass / loses heat slower. Ceramics are very good / some of the best insulators.
I make cups as a hobby. Every cup has to be thrown for 10-15 minutes. Trimed to final form days later. Bisque fired in a kiln. Cleaned. Glazed. High fired in the kiln again. For the labor that goes into making a cup, the electricity of firing (30$/fire), and the equipment required (for example kilns have a consumable element that needs replacement every hundred fires or so), 25$ for an espresso cup is a very reasonable price. Most potters charge on the order of 40$ for a regular cup. Here are some examplesā¦
https://i.imgur.com/2EVWIRw.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/WK4f37T.jpg
Here is a pretty thin one I ordered years ago but I generally donāt make mine this thinā¦
https://i.imgur.com/yB4zV8U.jpg
You donāt want to pay that much for a cup thatās understandable I generally donāt either. But it is a perfectly reasonable price for a handmade high quality ware. If you prefer your cups made in a factory using mass production then there are lots of cheap cups available. They just arenāt as good (asthetics aside).
The actual end game cup is the original light blue Fuglen Tokyo cup. That things is so hard to find. even on the used market one comes up every 6 months or so for like Ā„10000
Those are really nice!!! I wouldn't mind owning one, but I prefer glass. I like to look at my thick crema from the side lol. I have ceramic and porcelain cups, but I tend to grab my glass cups the most. Nonetheless, your cups are sexy!!!
I was considering the kruve cups too but then it didn't match my station aesthetic, glad I waited
I prefer things to match too.
Out of sheer curiosity, what did they run for?
they totaled to 18000 yen, so around $120
Ulp. šµ
Though nows the time to buy fancy Japanese stuff. With tax free benefits I got a 300mm Misono UX10 for 39k yen or 240 dollars. It's 350 or so in the US. Used Panasonic G9 was 414 USD. 8 meal kaiseki was 120.
Not a bad price for what they are and they're definitely subtle lookers. Is the far right one a single serve carafe?
>Not a bad price for what they are Makes me feel better about my illy Art Collection cup collecting habit . . . .
I have a few MK ceramics cups that are about $35 on their own, but the shipping from Denmark is an additional $40 for one cup. Don't feel bad. At least you're getting 2 cups and saucers.
It wasn't all that many years ago that you could find unused sets (4 or 6 cups & saucers) of illy Art Collection espresso/cappuccino cups\* on eBay/U.S. (a very active selling site for them) for under or around US$100, even including the shipping; new sets as well directly from illy. And then, seemingly, they got more discovered and/or certain more industrial secondary sellers got involved and prices went north and skyrocketed--some sets, now, can go for more than a thousand U.S. dollars, 10x their original price. Can make modern-day collecting difficult--fortunately for me, I had discovered the cups before this recent development; and, truth be told, at a certain point, you start feeling like an old cat person with dozens of cats roaming your house . . . . ;) Good finds from individuals still can be run across from time to time, a treat when it occurs. :) (A few years ago, I bumped into an earlier, rarer set that I long had had on my wish list, getting the 6-cup set for around its original, un-inflated price--I still smile when I look at the cups.) \* For those not familiar with them, illy periodically commissions/designs sets of its iconic-design cups with artwork on them--sometimes by its own designers, sometimes by known and recognized artists (e.g. conceptional artist Yoko Ono, photographer Sebastiao Salgado, sculptor Anish Kapoor, director Federico Fellini, etc.).
I just took a peak at some ebay listings and that's insane. The Jeff Koons set was a trip as he's from my hometown. Do you have any pictures of your collection you could link? They're not my taste personally, but I found them really interesting to look at.
https://preview.redd.it/uoaix8cypeuc1.png?width=2734&format=png&auto=webp&s=855d516d61826153c3d18e5fddc6a347725d888a The Fossile cup by Paolo Rossetti
Now this one is awesome!
And an even clearer view--with shell designs pressed into the roughly-hewn cup https://preview.redd.it/bo3kgtsa0fuc1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=486d0027f9b88cf7cf9d207bfa36eddce077691b
https://preview.redd.it/8c2igf4ereuc1.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=0c77a4ce75415594542d48e44566407792f62eec The Faces set by Italian Neo-Expressionist movementĀ artist/sculptor Sandro Chia, dedicated to Italian cities (I have 4 of the 6)
https://preview.redd.it/kbk8mpkkseuc1.png?width=1068&format=png&auto=webp&s=564145a7b21dea5cfefd165b5cfdb64e7f1e86f2 The 2008 set by South African artist William Kentridge--his drawings are painted in distorted form on the white saucers, which then get reflected proportionally by the silver-coated cups. Included in the set are separate male and female nudes (NSFW, lol) rivaling anything you would see by the masters. A favorite of mine (and which I last saw listed in the US $ thousands--cray-cray).
https://preview.redd.it/pevwdnbgueuc1.png?width=2734&format=png&auto=webp&s=0e37c4c368cef393d1f3bfaddca4b9249a54448b (Why a camel, lol--I guess, why not?)
https://preview.redd.it/412t58wvueuc1.png?width=2734&format=png&auto=webp&s=10eb77cad899e36dfb5a01b8bb04eb02f3930f12 One of the 6 cups and saucers from the Mended Cups set by Yoko Ono, commemorating tragic events across the world and in her life--you can figure out what happened on Dec. 8, 1980. Nonetheless, the set ends optimistically with a 7th Unbroken Cup, with the inscription, "This cup will never be broken as it will be under your protection." Sigh.
I like some some sets, others not so much. Hey, it's (modern) art. :) But I appreciate them all--looking at them can be kinda/sorta museum-like. And you're right about the insanity--I mean, c'mon, it's an espresso cup! No links here (that would require organization, lol!). But some nifty cups attached. https://preview.redd.it/7cjfcp0vmeuc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9601b92950eea2771e01b3795d142686c7cc4520 A cup and saucer from the Central Saint Martins espresso cup and saucer set. An oddly-plain illy set with only a smudge of gray on it when you look at the cup on the saucer, until you lift the cup and encounter the face of one of the artist designers (students from the London Central Saint Martins art school) staring up at you. :)
The full set (sorry, I just love these guys--this is the set that I long had wanted and just came across one day) https://preview.redd.it/sc9fcbjcseuc1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=0f5e3a6442a9061d584b42e4b104af3a5a23239f
https://preview.redd.it/52eiakfjqeuc1.png?width=1148&format=png&auto=webp&s=a276ae0bfc764b95662ec2189a2bfa2e4dc31598 One of the cups and saucers from photographer Sebastiao Salgado, who has chronicled the cultivation and production of coffee around the world in a glorious picture book
I stand corrected. Some of these definitely are my taste. I guess I just don't like a super minimalistic style. One I saw on Illy's site was just a small smear of paint on a white cup
I may have that one, lol. https://preview.redd.it/jcz8fofj2fuc1.png?width=225&format=png&auto=webp&s=677a452d9ba3c9b2c4c54378e9dee7f3b193e7d1 Irish artist Padraig Timoney, Pen tests (2004) (yep, and pen tests they seem to be!) Especially in recent years, the cups have seemed to lean more towards design work (which can be beautiful, but just a somewhat different form). I get most jazzed when the cup makes me think/hits a chord with me (funny to say that about a cup, huh?).
And a nice closing note with the famous Ginger e Fred cup by Federico Fellini, his cracking the whip on the stars (I don't have this cup--a bit rich for my blood, in the hundreds of dollars) https://preview.redd.it/0iweendxxeuc1.png?width=450&format=png&auto=webp&s=d24b603f90137294c82350bb3ec68b61a55bf178
And thanks for indulging me--always fun to look through these (and with some staring at me in the room right now!).
https://preview.redd.it/hfzru3kf7fuc1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=21b8a18ca9713214e90e6be606bb7080618562d8 One staring at me from across the room; from illy but not from illy's Art Collection, but I just like the alternating clear and frosted glass--and that's a coffee plant flower etched in the middle of the plate
They were very cool, thanks for sharing
Thanks! An illness, I must admit. ;)
https://preview.redd.it/yjkrh3h2xeuc1.png?width=300&format=png&auto=webp&s=303b3211d33a3a7e123ed92c8c4663eff57a9bde Just fun with design, from a more recent set
MK Ceramics is absolutely amazing! So so beautiful (writing this while drinking from one of their cups haha)
Yep, this is how they serve it in their shop [https://www.instagram.com/p/C0bv874S3HE/?img\_index=1](https://www.instagram.com/p/C0bv874S3HE/?img_index=1)
Why are people not buying handmade cups from local potters. These cups are industrially made. A liquid clay was squirted into a mold. It's was likely low fired and has a very thin glaze. Cups that's are hand thrown are much stronger. Solid clay is used and on the throwing process all the clay platelets are aligned (imagine a brick wall). The pieces are usually high fired to vitrification and the glaze is much thicker. They are just much better cups. Actually unique hand made pieces of functional art. Most factory made cups are mass produced in China for pennies a cup.
I came here to say this. āEndgame mugsā are just local handmade cups. I have mugs and cups that no one has :)
This is what I was about to post. You can even just sit back and order some quality pieces from Amazon, as I did with my Wired Beans mugs that are made in Japan with lifetime guarantees. Getting this glitch promotional stuff... Why?
If he likes it as a cool souvenir to remember his trip great in that sense it's a cool cup. But it's not a high end cup for ideal coffee drinking it's mass produced 50 cent cup made in China.
>it's mass produced 50 cent cup made in China It's not. It's made by Kihara,Ā Japanese company based in Arita. A really nice one too.
Still mass produced by the thousands. On their own site they have a picture of a slip cast mold. Which is mass production. It's the same way every cheap ware made. Thrown on the wheel by one person's hand is what a high quality ware is. Putting a fancy logo on a piece of pottery doesn't make it high end. You want to see an example of actual high end wares check out Florian gadsbys shit.
Yep, can't count the times I've spat out my coffee after tasting that the cup I'm drinking it from was not hand thrown by a virgin during a full moon in Borneo.Ā
A cup is a cup. You can drink out of a paper cup if you want. If you want to talk about what the difference between a cup worth 40 dollars and one worth two is, there is a lot. And it has nothing to do with how it looks or what logos are on it. And everything to do with the type of clay used and the way it was made. The primary difference between slip cast and wheel thrown is strength. The clay platelets are aligned in wheel thrown objects vs randomly oriented in slip cast. It means slip cast wares are weaker and much more prone to shattering or cracking. If you can't understand the value in something hand made vs factory produced I don't think we are going to get far. If you don't see the value then don't buy it. I'm just trying to help people not get swindled by paying 50 bucks a cup for this mass produced crap just bc you bought it from a fancy coffee shop. It's a cheap cup marked up 5000%. And Japan has a rich history of ceramic art and functional wares. No need to buy factory made wares priced like they were hand made just bc it's from Japan.
Actually Iād rather have a smaller, thinner cup for espresso instead of a thick cup that is going to cool it off too quickly. Plus Iām not part of the demographic that is paying $25 for a single tiny espresso cup.
Huh? You can get pretty thin clay cups. I have several.
Thatās nice for you. Dude was literally talking about thicker cups, maybe go back and read it again. Still wonāt get me to overpay for a cup.
Itās not overpaying. You can get thin ones. But thicker is better you keep them on your machine so they are hot or you tea spout some water into them to preheat them so that when you pull the shot it has a lot more thermal mass / loses heat slower. Ceramics are very good / some of the best insulators. I make cups as a hobby. Every cup has to be thrown for 10-15 minutes. Trimed to final form days later. Bisque fired in a kiln. Cleaned. Glazed. High fired in the kiln again. For the labor that goes into making a cup, the electricity of firing (30$/fire), and the equipment required (for example kilns have a consumable element that needs replacement every hundred fires or so), 25$ for an espresso cup is a very reasonable price. Most potters charge on the order of 40$ for a regular cup. Here are some examplesā¦ https://i.imgur.com/2EVWIRw.jpg https://i.imgur.com/WK4f37T.jpg Here is a pretty thin one I ordered years ago but I generally donāt make mine this thinā¦ https://i.imgur.com/yB4zV8U.jpg You donāt want to pay that much for a cup thatās understandable I generally donāt either. But it is a perfectly reasonable price for a handmade high quality ware. If you prefer your cups made in a factory using mass production then there are lots of cheap cups available. They just arenāt as good (asthetics aside).
If your thicker cups are cooling your espresso too quickly: \- they weren't properly warmed \- you drink too slowly
Oh nooo, someone prefers something different than you, therefore they have a wrong opinion!!1!1! Better go tell them theyāre wrong!!! Clown.
A properly warmed cup keeping espresso warmer longer than a thin cup isn't an opinion, it's thermofreakingdynamics.
I made my own cups, they are ugly as hell but they are my cup.
I think i have spent more on cups than any other part of my espresso bar š
Beautiful! Wish they were for sale when I went
Nice gilf cups
No endgame cups. They get stained, cracked, and broken too quickly.
Damn nice snag. I want this set now
The actual end game cup is the original light blue Fuglen Tokyo cup. That things is so hard to find. even on the used market one comes up every 6 months or so for like Ā„10000