Coffee mugs

[Muse]

"OT Discussion Club"

Stupid idiots! Why rename Off Topic, it boggles the mind!!!

Alright...

I'm fussy about my coffee mug. 99.99% of them don't suit me. If I go into a store, I will not like what I find, it's the way it is. Most are too small to begin with. The ones that are big enough are ugly, heavy, unwieldy.

The ones I have that I'm pretty OK with, I came upon pretty much by chance. Retail, forget it, haven't found a single one I really like. I bought a couple like this recently, but they sit unused on my shelf:

This is a big 20oz mug.

A number of years ago I found a cup in a thrift store that I used for my coffee until recently. It's a 0.5 liter beer mug that "Curtis" bought in Germany in 1968. Yeah, it says Curtis 1968 Deutschland on it. It has literally hundreds, maybe thousands of cracks in the glaze but it's big enough and kind of serviceable. It weighs 19oz, which is quite light for a ceramic 0.5 liter beer mug. I know, because I have bought several of those retail. Those are gathering dust on my shelves because I really don't care for them for coffee or whatever.

However, I literally found a mug on the street a few months ago, on the curb of a residential street that someone placed out there evidently because it's imperfect and didn't suit their sensibilities. It has a couple of major cracks you can see on the inside, is chipped in several places. I took it home because, well, other than those imperfections it's damn near the perfect coffee mug. IOW, I can look past its imperfections and appreciate it for what it is... a close to perfect mug for me.

• It's big (holds 20 ounces easily)
• It's very light for a very large ceramic mug (15 ounces!)
• It's beautiful (see shots below)

I used some tools to smooth out imperfections, e.g. the rough edge where my mouth goes when I sip/drink coffee (or tea or whatever) from this mug. I further smoothed with various grades of wet/dry sandpaper. This thing is awesome.

I can't find another mug to compare. There must be some, but where? I've looked online... nothing! It's made with some kind of white ceramic material, lighter than typical clay, but it's definitely ceramic. The design, well, it's pretty nice, I must say. On the bottom it says it's hand painted, etc.:

Now, since this mug is already cracked pretty substantially, I figure it would break very easily. That and the facts that it seems to be damn hard to find a mug I like 1/2 as much and that I'd like to have at least two mugs I really like so I can be sociable with them, makes me want to find mugs I like at least as much as this one for sale. Do you know where I might be able to find mugs I really like for sale?

 

[lxskllr]

Thrift shop.

 

[Chaotic42]

Now this is a thread.

I like my Contigo Extreme (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LZGBMKT)

I also like my Batman mug:

As far as a good source, I don't know of one online. Here's a guide to repairing ceramic:
https://theartfulcrafter.com/blog/repairs-two.html

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Your two choices are Kentucky and England.

 

[Muse]

Thrift shop.

You have no idea how many times I've browsed the cups/mugs/etc. in thrift shops looking for mugs I like. I'm resigned to the fact that it's a waste of time and effort.

 

[BoomerD]

I have a different mug for every day of the week...not just that I have enough to use a clean one every day...but that each day has a specific mug that gets used ONLY on that day.

Monday, it’s a Pendleton branded mug that I got in Yellowstone
Tuesday is a large green speckled mug from a restaurant in Redding, CA
Wednesday is a VERY LARGE mug from Weed, CA
Thursday is my Pittsburgh Steelers mug
Friday is a “cute” “I’ll be your huckleberry” mug, also from Yellowstone
Saturday can either be a Warner Bros. Tasmanian Devil mug that my mom bought me almost 25 years ago, or a very large Minions mug
Sunday is always my Seattle Seahawks mug.

I have most of a set of patriotic flag mugs that we use on holidays.

My coffee cup cupboard is so full, if I get a new one...I have to get rid of an old one.

 

[lxskllr]

I have a ton of cups, but I use two the majority of the time. A Phaltzgraff Klein tools cup, and a Dembyware cup. I'll use them a couple months at a time without washing them, then swap out for awhile.

 

[WelshBloke]

 

[esquared]

Right now I am partial to my "caffeine" mug I got from the Fisher Rep.

 

[PliotronX]

Dammit, you got my hopes up that there was available an ATOT mug with a temperature activated statement that "jerboy was here"

 

[highland145]

Dammit, you got my hopes up that there was available an ATOT mug with a temperature activated statement that "jerboy was here"

Recalled. We're ATOTDC now. jerboy can't even find us.

 

[IronWing]

My own design

 

[highland145]

My own design

Ns1 suckup?

 

[Muse]

The picture is big, but can it accommodate 16 oz of fluid comfortably? I doubt it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm boring, I just use a plain white mug that came with a dish set. I accidentally broke one so far, so I have like 7 more. I recently bought one of these that I fill at home and bring to work, then I just fill my mug as I drink my coffee. I don't like the coffee scalding hot so it has a bit of a chance to cool down in the mug.

 

[PliotronX]

Recalled. We're ATOTDC now. jerboy can't even find us.

Double Dammit, DC makes me think of domain controllers

 

[WelshBloke]

The picture is big, but can it accommodate 16 oz of fluid comfortably? I doubt it.

It would be disappointing if the BFM wasn't that big!
You should visit the UK, there's entire shops that only sell mugs!

 

[Muse]

It would be disappointing if the BFM wasn't that big!
You should visit the UK, there's entire shops that only sell mugs!

Well, I'll try to make a point of going to some of those shops when I get there. I have family there. Oxford and London.

 

[Muse]

So, I slept on this and thought I should maybe make my own. It's been some 40 years since I've had my hands in clay, but I used to throw my own pots, glaze and fire them, still have some around, gave some away.

I could get some white clay (if that would indeed be lighter), get some time at a studio (there's lots of that around here!), and make a set, say 1/2 dozen. It's a challenge. Partly because clay shrinks as it dries, so I'd have to make the mugs significantly bigger than they'll wind up when dry. Then there's working the clay well and enough so the mug doesn't turn out too heavy yet retains enough strength (i.e. even thickness), you have to trim... and then there's the handles. Forming acceptable handles and properly attaching them. There's an art to that. Then working up a glazing system. Two trips to the kiln. It's a lot of work and I already am overburdened with projects, damn it. I'd rather just buy mugs I like but finding them has been a major challenge. I'm not just booking a trip to London to get mugs!

 

[lxskllr]

I'd be concerned with toxic elements in the glazing. It also doesn't seem to be easy to get right. I've bought nice looking handmade cups, but the glazing quickly cracks due to thermal expansion. I don't like dissuading people from doing things themselves, but the results may not be what you're after.

 

[stargazr]

I like insulated mugs. I have an old I Goldberg mug someone gave me for Christmas back in the nineties, and a Thermos travel tumbler I use mainly for work. I have an old white iridescent cup from my grandmother I like for tea.

 

[Muse]

I like insulated mugs. I have an old I Goldberg mug someone gave me for Christmas back in the nineties, and a Thermos travel tumbler I use mainly for work. I have an old white iridescent cup from my grandmother I like for tea.

For a number of years I drank my coffee from a sort of insulated mug of my design (I made a few). I took those big tall plastic beverage cups from McDonalds and glued (with contact cement) to the outside of them styrofoam that I got by slicing open those giant syrofoam-insulated coffee cups they used to sell around here. The result was a cup that was insulated and very resusable.

Nowadays I use a Contiga when I leave the house with coffee and the beauty in the OP for around the house.

 

[nOOky]

I have a mug from a 100k trail running race that holds 3 cups of coffee and it's all I use. If it breaks I'll be screwed, or I'll have to run that race again.

 

[Muse]

I'd be concerned with toxic elements in the glazing. It also doesn't seem to be easy to get right. I've bought nice looking handmade cups, but the glazing quickly cracks due to thermal expansion. I don't like dissuading people from doing things themselves, but the results may not be what you're after.

Well, the glazing in the mug I use daily is white (see OP). I think that's less apt to be toxic than if it weren't white.

 

[madoka]

For a guy who drinks out of a discarded mug he found out on the street, you're remarkably picky.