Milk Cup from Japan

Here's a beautiful example of simplicity in design from Japan. It's called the Cara Milk Cup, one of a set that also includes an egg cup and a tea cup. They're designed by Rina Ono and hand-crafted by Hidetoshi Takahashi in Japan. From the Merchant No. 4 catalog:

This beautiful milk cup is designed for an individual serving at your coffee and tea setting, however, we think its great for many other things too (salad dressings, seasonings and more!). Cara is made from Japanese Linden wood with a food-safe polyurethane coating inside.

Many more photos of all the designs at Merchant No. 4 and the Cool Hunting blog.

[Thanks to Cool Hunting]

Cedar Cups and Bottle

I've always been a big fan of bent wood furniture and other projects that involve bending steamed wood around a mold. I especially like Shaker boxes.

While I was visiting the Design Within Reach website last week, their Cedar Sake Cups and Bottle caught my eye. I don't know how these are made, but the design is striking. The process is called Magewappa, and it uses highly select Akiti cedar trees in Japan. From the website:

The tradition of Japanese woodcraft called Magewappa has been practiced for 400 years in Odate City. This area, located on the east end of the Shirakami Mountains, is known for its history of growing cedar. Designer Shunji Kurimori is part of a history that’s equally rich, building on six generations of his family’s business, established in 1874. Kurimori’s Cedar Sake Cup Set is made using old cedar trees with a striking narrow grain, resulting in a bentwood low-conduction vessel that keeps cold sake cool, hot sake warm.

More photos and history are available at the DWR website.