Amytis Cup by Zeynep Zumre and Mesut Zumre is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 A' Design Award in Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware and Cookware Design Competition Category.
IronKitchenware· 2025
Amytis Cup
by Zeynep Zumre and Mesut Zumre
Client: Zeynep Zümre
A' Design Award Winner in Kitchenware Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #167104The Design
About Amytis Cup
Amytis is a porcelain cup designed for hot and cold drinks. The form recalls a cluster of grapes and takes its inspiration from the hanging gardens of Babylon. The rounded surface offers a tactile grip that suggests holding grapes in the hand. The cup holds 200 ml and is presented with a matching glossy plate. Production starts with a plaster mold, into which porcelain clay is poured. Two firings follow, a biscuit firing at 1050 degrees and a glaze firing at 1230 degrees. The finished cup is easy to clean and machine washable.
The Recognition
About the A' Design Award
Amytis Cup is an Iron A' Design Award winner, a prestigious recognition granted to good designs that meet the professional and industrial requirements expected from well-designed creations. Iron winners demonstrate great skill, high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity of their creators. Amytis Cup is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished creation that is practical and innovative. This Iron A' Design Award-winning design integrates industry best practices and has competent technical characteristics linked with know-how and talent. Amytis Cup is respected for its thoroughness and is designed to provide quality of life improvements that help make the world a better place.
Where to Get It
Handmade Porcelain Tableware Collection
We create exquisite handmade porcelain tableware that transforms everyday moments into extraordinary experiences. Each piece in our collection tells a unique story, combining artisanal craftsmanship with innovative design. Discover cups, plates, and serving pieces that bring beauty and meaning to your table.
Explore CollectionInterviews
Grand Interview
Your innovative interpretation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in the Amytis Cup design creates a tactile connection to ancient history - could you elaborate on how you translated this historical wonder into a functional porcelain form?
Inspired by Babylon's Hanging Gardens, we wanted to make this unique story touch daily life. We have created an experience that combines the past with the past and the present by carrying the hanging plants of the gardens to the surface of the cup. The Amytis Cup was a design that made a functional form of an ancient tale.
The grape cluster motif of the Amytis Cup offers a unique sensory experience - what specific design elements did you incorporate to achieve both the visual appeal and ergonomic comfort in this challenging form?
We wanted to interpret the organic form of grape cluster both aesthetically and easily. We arranged the rhythm of the protrusions on the surface in accordance with the grasp of the hand. Thus, we obtained a form that offers both visually rich and ergonomically comfortable sensory experience.
After spending two years perfecting the Amytis Cup through research and development, what were the most significant technical challenges you encountered when working with fine Limoges porcelain to achieve this complex shape?
The fact that the fine Limoges porcelain was a fragile and difficult to hold shape by nature was the biggest challenge to produce the complex form of design. In particular, we have developed long trials and special patterns to ensure that the protrusions resembling grape cluster are left properly during casting and to maintain the form after cooking. We have repeatedly revised the production process to make the material both aesthetics and durable.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- Amytis is a cup design. It stands out with its design story. It gives the pleasure of holding a bunch of grapes in your hand with its grape cluster visual inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. A piece of grape and a sip of wine or coffee. It offers comfortable use with its ergonomic grip, easy-to-clean surface and stylish porcelain material.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Handmade porcelain.
Material: Limoges Porcelain.
Package content: Includes one 200 ml glossy cup and one glossy serving plate.
Product Dimensions:
Cup: Volume: 200 ml Diameter: 80 mm Height: 55 mm
Plate: Diameter: 145 x 130 mm Height: 5 mm
Usage: Suitable for all kinds of hot and cold drinks. Machine washable. - Tags
- handmade, fineporcelain, porcelaincup, handmadeporcelain
- Production Technology
- After shaping the Amytis model, a plaster mold is taken. A 3D printer is used to create the model. It is produced by pouring porcelain clay into plaster molds. It goes through two firings in order, the first is 1050 degrees biscuit firing and the second is 1230 degrees glaze firing, which gives it the beauty of porcelain.
- Design Challenge
- The most challenging part was to turn the design into reality with ceramic material without spoiling its effect when it was fully formed. I had chosen fine porcelain as the material and this required a very difficult production process for the form. However, as a result of a year of R&D work, I had the opportunity to reach the perfect design with a new molding method. This was what I was looking for. No matter how difficult it was, the design chose its own material and it came true exactly as I imagined.
- Research
- When creating the design, the first priority was for it to be enjoyable to use. In addition, it had to be ergonomic and easy to clean. While thinking about all these, I started researching, thinking that a story would help. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon always interested me, and the in-depth readings I did strengthened me. I found the final touch I was looking for in its story.
- Inspiration
- I was inspired by the hanging gardens that Nebuchadnezzar had built for his wife Amytis. It was very important to me that the design be personally pleasing. So I was moved by the fact that Queen Amytis found her longing for green hills and gardens in the beauty of the grape clusters. I imagined her holding the grape cluster in her hand. Like taking a bite of a grape cluster in the palm of your hand.
- Project Duration
- The design began to take shape in 2017 and reached its best state in 2019.
- Operation Flow
- Amytis was designed as a coffee mug. But it varies according to the user's experience. This is its best feature because it is suitable for a wine or a small snack in time.
- Patents
- application number: 2021/003894
registration number: 2021 003894
applicant: Zeynep Zümre - Team Members
- Zeynep Zümre
Mesut Zümre
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