The Mugs That Our Favorite Ceramicists Can't Live Without
Look into someone else’s cabinet, and you might wonder why they’re still holding onto that mug with the chipped lip, the weird stain, or that dad joke (The Grillfather? Really?). But one of those “gems” is probably someone’s most cherished mug, and nothing’s coming between that bond. One recent study found that one in six people have an emotional attachment to one particular mug. A third would be “angry” or “totally devastated” if their favorite one broke. So it’s totally normal to grow attached to a certain mug; it’s always there for you, unless someone else is using it. (Don’t do that.) And if there’s one group of people most likely to care about the one special mug, it’s ceramicists. They probably have plenty of mugs to choose from, so how do they decide which are the keepers? Here are the stories behind the mugs most prized by the people who know mugs best.
1/9Dana Bechert
The mug: I've been partial to a mug I made last year. It’s pretty large with a beefy handle that I can fit all my fingers in, and the tapered cylinder shape fits in my car's cup holder. I like this mug especially because it’s carved, and you can feel the carved texture. Mugs are one of the few objects the user is encouraged to handle.
The drink: I start the day with a honey latte, which is very decadent, I know. I also love to make really spicy fresh ginger tea with honey and lemon. The ginger warms you up inside, and the mug warms your hands outside. It’s perfect.
2/9Miro Chun
The mug: As a ceramicist, I've only actually made one mug—it's the first piece I ever made in a ceramics class at community college, long before I ever thought about pursuing ceramics as a career. It's also the only mug I own. It really is a homely thing—lumpy, misshapen, roughly glazed, and rests on an uneven base. Even though it's ungainly, if you look hard enough, you can see the beginnings of the sorts of pieces that make up my current oeuvre of ceramics. So when I cup the mug and feel the heat of the warm tea, it becomes a physical reminder of the distance from where I started, to where I am now, to where I might go with my ceramics practice in the future.
The drink: I don't actually use my mug all the time, but I do have sort of a ritual of using it at the start of every winter: I'll use my step stool to reach the highest cabinets, to root around in all the dusty dark corners, until I can unearth it. This search happens every year, like clockwork, because my husband will hide the cup—he hates it, because, as he likes to put it, "it's the ugliest thing ever." The handle—beyond the fact that I generally don't like cups with handles—is the ugliest thing about the mug. But it's a very personalized handle since it was made by the same hand that would grip it, and it feels just right when it's filled with hot black tea, with a little milk.
3/9Sarah Cihat
The mug: I made this mug when I was figuring out the marbling process and testing colors. The color differential didn’t quite have the impact that I wanted, but I liked the shape and thickness of the piece, so I brought it in from the studio to the house.
The drink: Coffee with cream.
4/9Jono Pandolfi
The mug: Back in 2010, Chef Daniel Humm asked me to start making plates for the restaurant he and Will Guidara were opening at the NoMad hotel. From that point on, we started leaving the exterior of everything unglazed because you get this cool contrast. But this dark stoneware mug I made around 2008 has a white speckly glaze all over, a look we no longer do, so it kind of reminds me of back before I started to get super busy.
The drink: Pour-over coffee, made while frying eggs for my family.
5/9Lindsey Hampton
The mug: I specifically designed this mug to my own hand, so it fits me perfectly. I’ve recently let this design retire, but of course the one I've kept has a crack where the handle meets the body. It could basically go any day now.
The drink: Mostly just coffee, although lately I've been trying to trick myself into an interest in tea. It’s almost working!
6/9Josephine Heilpern (Recreation Center)
The mug: Though my cabinet has become a mug graveyard that everybody can pull from, for sure the one mug that is mine is the #1 Sister mug. I live with my brother, so really it doesn't make sense for him to use it. He got it for me at an awesome Salvation Army in Hudson, NY that we go to every Christmas. I found this one and joked that it should be my Christmas present. He handed it to me in the parking lot as we were leaving and said ‘Here, I got you a present. Merry Christmas.’ We are obviously very good at giving gifts.
The drink: Growing up in New York, I got really used to grabbing a to-go coffee in the morning, so I probably use my mug the most to gulp down water before rushing out the door. If there is time to sit and drink, the beverage inside would most likely be broth or a cup of miso.
7/9Jennifer Fiore (MONDAYS)
The mug: My friend Nicole Hayes, the genius behind Nicoceramics, and I traipsed to her studio on a blizzardy day when I was about 81/2 months pregnant and wearing totally inappropriate shoes because I couldn't deal with tying laces at that point. We walked very slowly and she made sure I didn't fall (though she herself was 4 months pregnant). I bought 4 of her delicately striped tumblers to give as gifts but kept two for myself because I loved them so much. After almost 10 years, the tumbler is horribly crazed [finely cracked on the surface] and I keep worrying that it will crack, but it never does.
The drink: COFFEE.
8/9Erin Reitz (The Shelter Collection)
The mug: The two Shelter Collection prototypes at home are the only mugs my husband and I use! If we have guests, I feel like I should give them to the mugs, and I am secretly bummed. None of our other mugs are as comfortable! The shape emulates a mug hut: I love that it’s wide at the bottom to make it very sturdy and tapered in at the top to keep in the temperature. And the handles are large enough to comfortably fit four fingers—I like to really hug my mugs with my hands.
The drink: Black coffee. Is that boring?
9/9Helen Levi
The mug: In my line of work, nearly all the pieces I bring home are ‘seconds:’ the truly-bad, hole-in-the-bottom, cracked-all-the-way-through, repaired-with-super-glue pieces. But after getting through one hard Christmas season, I let myself keep a ‘first,’ a perfect mug. What I love about marbling is how each piece has its own pattern. My personal taste is for the more chunky, color-blocked patterns, so it spoke to me. I have a lot of mugs, but I get upset if my boyfriend uses this one.
The drink: I am a strict tea-only person—strong black tea with milk and honey. Even in the heat of summer, I want a nice cuppa tea.
