Serious about coffee, playful about life
The no-coffee espresso cup is a unique coffee cup designed to introduce humour to a usually conventional or ordinary coffee cup. The aesthetics are familiar at first glance with its coffee cup geometric archetype. Its volume, however, differs as it can only contain a double espresso at most! Imagine the planned confusion as a customer receives their espresso in a bigger cup than they had anticipated, to ultimately find out it indeed does contain just their espresso! The especially shallow bottom is as surprising in its appearance as in its drinking experience.
Industrial Design, 3D Modelling, Prototyping, Mould Design, Slip Casting, Glazing, Packaging Design, Web Design, Logistics
Why
This is another personal project, and just like the SMEM project it is coffee related. The purpose of this project is twofold: On the one hand the bring an idea to life, on the other to get to know the world of slip casting and mould making in a hands-on way.
How
A number of sketches led to the perfect conventional coffee cup shape. In CAD, the espresso volume was measured out, creating the right height for the bottom of the cup. Around this 'mother piece design', a mould was 3D modelled, representing the plaster mould in which slip (liquid clay) would be poured in a later stage. In a 3D printed mould, plaster was cast and removed after drying. Slip was then poured into the plaster moulds and removed when hardened. When the slip was dry and leather-hard, the cup was sanded, bisque fired, glazed and fired yet again. Finally it was packaged and made ready for shipping.
Sketch cup design
3D modelling (assessing its volume)
3D modelling (mould)
3D printing the mould
Pouring plaster into the 3D printed mould
Taking out the plaster from the 3D printed moulds
Pouring slip into the plaster mould
Taking out the dried slip from the plaster moulds
Sanding the bone dry designs
Bisque firing
Sanding the bisque fired designs
Glazing
Sanding the glaze
Glaze firing
Packaging
What
The no-coffee cup was born: a regular coffee cup shape with an espresso volume. Hand-made, glazed and fired, all in the Netherlands. Now available for sale at the monomore store!
Now available
The cup is now available for sale at monomore.store.
Batches are limited so get yours before they run out!
Thank you!
Special thanks go out to Regina Rózsa from Tiny Thoughts for teaching the ins and outs of mould making, slip casting, glazing and firing 🔥. Check out her work and courses on her studio page.