It's cupping season
Forget about the scourge of cuffing season for one moment and take a big whiff of that PSL-scented crispy November air. I know people are freaking out about Ugg boots and sweaters and shit, but forget about those for a goddamnit minute and listen to me cup. Sure, it's cuffing season but honestly, don't we all need a break from thinking about our remote detachment and the all-encompassing desolation of being a person in this modern world just looking for some non-annoying companionship? I know I do!
Truly, though, you know what the holiday season is really all about? I have figured it out. It is CUPS. Cups are the heroes of the cold season. Cups hold your warm bevs. Cups actually hold whatever the hell you put in them because cups don't discriminate. Cups are always there for you – they're a universal symbol of hospitality and support. Cups make for great gifts when you have to get a gift and have no idea what gift to give — who doesn't need a vessel for liquids or pens? No need to go overboard with a whole set. Even the most matchy-matchy persons have leeway for non-matching cups.
Are your fingers not curling in cup anticipation? Can I not just shut up and make with the cups now? Cool well, yeah!
A very skilled cupper Helen Levi made these cups. They look like an ocean wave on a beach! Thusly, she has named them beach mugs. I really like that raw ceramic texture but I also like it when there's also a glazed bit. The inside part of these mugs is glazed so I guess your hot bevs don't stain the raw ceramic or something. Whenever you drink a hot bev out of these you can just imagine the oceanic whoosh swoosh sound going as you gulp it down. How tranquil!
Is it an attractive wisp of smoke? No — it's a cup! Look at this work of smudgy squiggly cup art. I enjoy the color combination of pale dusty pink and dark charcoal grey because it's put-together with personality and doesn't take itself too seriously but knows how to read a room... You know?
A very cool mug-maker Risa Nishimori makes these mugs. I hope she makes more! I hope I also can afford to casually drop $60 on a cup and not fearfully baby it, lest it crack in the sink or something. I'd be really annoyed at that. Do they make cup insurance yet?
Look at this elegant egg—I mean, cup! The perfect eggy rotundness, the modest drip-glaze. I swoon for a good half-glaze such as this. Charlotte Smith makes this cup, along with other equally rotund cups, but none so salaciously half-dressed as this one.
I love a good hardy generously be-handled cup. A cup that says. "here, lemme help you; I'm full of scalding hot liquids." I also love a good Neopolitan lewk like this one. Three colors! Three textures! Wowee! It's everything I love in an ice cream cake but in a cup. Marian Bull is this cup's mom (or Cup God, if you prefer cup creationism philosophies), and the cup has a fraternal twin with a regular cylindrical-shaped bod, but I'm not here to cup-body shame. I'm here to admire some cups.
Speaking of textures and SPEAKING of drippy glazes, Brian Giniewski went there with that drippy-droppy glaze. I'd say it's downright messy if it wasn't so damn amusing to me. Honestly, I think this would just be a really fun cup to hold. It's just being itself, not holding back — so it's a little sloppy, so what? Sometimes things get out of hand and you just gotta go with it. That's life! This cup knows how to live.
The Marie Kondo'ing zen-head in me absolutely loves these Japanese Hasami ceramics. Everything is so geometrically perfect and clean-looking and meant to stack and fit into one another. Like this raw ceramic cup that has its own hat/coaster. Of course, it's Japanese — what else would you expect from such a neat and well-constructed polite cup?
I can't look at this cup without going awww. I don't know why — maybe I'm just going through a thing. But I like how round and also straight this cup is, with cute freckles all over. The textured bottom gives it some grip on a surface, which I can't complain about when in the market for expensive artisanal cuppery. On the other hand, this is probably one of the few things I can afford at Totokaelo, so I feel fancy either way. Cupper, Kati Von Lehmen made it in Portland OR where some very good cups come from, so you know this is legit.
Oh my, we have a rebel here. A loop-de-loop mug handle? Who even are you?? This good-natured muggo is from merry old England where Milo Liren makes what she calls these "ugly mugs" and what I call some prime cuppery! There are many more structural beauties on her Instagram that are not found in the e-shop much to my chagrin. I want a mug that challenges me! Not one that'll just let any old grabbers pick it up.
Man, aspiring to cup life is an expensive and questionably worthwhile hobby. But whatever — cups are happiness (to me)! One day I aspire to be the type of cup connoisseur who never has to sip a sip from a dumb cup again.
Show someone you care this holiday season... with a cup!
GOOD CUPS ONLY.