I had the idea for this book in my head for several years before it actually became realized. I wanted to create a book about tea cups, mugs, coffee, tea and everything that those things reminded me of. I wanted the book to come as a set inside a mug--where the book itself looked like hot coffee or tea, complete with steam curling off the surface. I knew that in order to fit in the mug, each page had to be about 1" wide by 3" tall so that when the book opened all the way around it would fill the whole inside of the mug. It's 2.75" in diameter when opened.

To achieve this goal, I contacted a friend who is a potter for Everyday Earthware and commissioned her to make mugs specially to fit these books.

Next, I begged everyone I knew on Facebook to draw pictures of teacups, mugs and what came to mind when thinking about them using pen & ink or plain pencil, no background--just the line drawings. I received so much interest and so many mug drawings from around the world that I knew this was only going to be the first volume in a longer set.

I scanned in all the drawings and did the book layout with one cup on each page. Then I did stream of consciousness writing about each one and wrote a word or a short phrase that came to mind when I looked at each drawing.

Next, I printed all the pages, double-sided, hand cut them apart, and folded each one. Then I created the tiny hard-bound covers, punched the holes and stitched each book onto the covers using the Coptic stitching method. I wanted to make sure that the covers would be secured tightly to the book even though the spine was exposed. I added ribbons under the covers and over the spine and attached a star-shaped brad closure to keep the book open all the way when it is in the mug.

After that, I stripped individual strands from peacock feathers, trimmed the ends and made a small tuft by gluing the ends together and stitched this little bundle into the spine of each book with the tips of the feathers sticking out the top of the book. Then I hand scored each strand to make it curl like steam.

Finally, I picked up the commissioned mugs from my friend and put the sets together and they're perfect!

Available in several different color combinations!

Book page colors: black coffee, light cream, heavy cream
Mug colors: orange/brown, teal/purple, purple/blue, pink/blue, purple/brown

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