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Meet Srirat Jongsanguandi, multidisciplinary artist, designer, sculptor and ceramicist behind our new limited edition flat white cups. Her East London-based practice brings together story, culture and craftsmanship through tactile objects designed to be used, held and lived with.
During university, I had the opportunity to go to Santander, Spain, for a model-making course at Atelier La Juntana. While I was there, I tried throwing on the pottery wheel for the first time. I went into it with so much confidence, thinking it would be easy, and it completely humbled me. I remember making a promise to myself that when I got back to London, I was going to learn properly and get good at it.
At the same time, I was spending most of my working life designing spaces on a laptop, so I was craving something away from screens. Ceramics gave me something tactile and immediate, where I could work directly with my hands. There was also something really special about making an object and then being able to actually use it in everyday life. That combination of challenge, making and function is what really drew me in.
I draw inspiration from nature, everyday objects and the environments around me. Sometimes I notice the same forms appearing in my work, from the ridges of a metal steamer in my kitchen to carvings I’ve seen in temples in Thailand. I’m also drawn to artists like Barbara Hepworth and Magdalene Odundo, particularly the way form can feel both sculptural and deeply human.Often, my work begins with a memory or a feeling I want to hold onto.
The Morning Stool, for example, came from my time in Mashiko, Japan, and the quiet ritual of sitting outside in the morning sun sipping coffee. I wanted to bring some of that slowness and joy back with me to London.
I hope people can feel the care that has gone into making each piece, not just in the quality, but in the small details of how it feels to use. How a cup sits comfortably in your hands, or how a cut-out naturally gives your fingers somewhere to rest. A lot of SRIRATMAKES is about bringing a little more care and joy into everyday moments.
I like to think of objects as companions, things you live with, build rituals around and create memories with. If using one of our pieces makes someone slow down, notice the moment or enjoy something as simple as their morning coffee a little more, then that feels really special.
For me, the connection is care: the human touch, the process, and the time it takes to make something well. With both ce amics and speciality coffee, there are so many hands, decisions and small details behind something that eventually becomes part of a very simple everyday moment.
That’s something I really connect with in both SRIRATMAKES and Origin: taking an everyday ritual and giving it more meaning through craft and care. The first sip of coffee in the morning, from a cup I love, is genuinely one of my favourite moments of the day. It’s small, but it can bring so much joy.
The starting point was understanding Origin and what we wanted the object to bring to the everyday coffee ritual. I started by looking at simple geometric forms and proportions, finding something that felt sculptural but still very functional. From there, it was about the small details: the right proportions for a flat white, the ridges and how they sit around your fingers, how the cup feels in your hands, and how each piece could stack. I wanted it to feel considered from every angle, whether you’re drinking from it or it’s sitting on the shelf.
There are two different forms and two different colours, but the shared ridges create a language between them and allow them to stack together. I’ve always loved objects that can stack and grow into something bigger. Individually, each cup has its own character, but when they come together, they almost become a small sculpture. I like that idea of individual pieces gathering and becoming a whole, especially for an object that is so connected to the everyday ritual of coming together over coffee.
To keep making and bringing ideas to life, but also to build towards a space of our own that brings people together through culture, craft and care. We want to create objects that become companions, spaces that feel good for the soul, and experiences that people carry with them. A big part of that is helping people slow down, work with their hands and reconnect with themselves and each other through making. Ultimately, I’d love SRIRATMAKES to become a place people can return to, not just for the objects, but for the feeling around them.
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