COFFEE LOVERS

Ever since childhood, I have loved coffee, the act of drinking it, and the cultural rituals that surround it. Sustained by different traditions across diverse geographies, coffee culture has been part of my design world for many years.

From the very first years of establishing my own brand, I began designing and producing coffee cups. Reflecting on the form of a cup, its material, the way it is held in the hand, and the experience of drinking coffee became much more than simply designing a product for me.

As I also design jewellery, I wanted one day to bring these two seemingly different fields together. I transformed my love of coffee and the form of a coffee cup into an object to be worn on the finger.

And so, the Coffee Lovers ring was born.

Produced as a one-of-a-kind piece, the ring eventually found its way into the collection of Nihal and Murat Bursa, a couple who have been building a collection of coffee cups over the years.

This encounter prompted me to reflect once again.

When we design an object, we never know whose life it will eventually enter, where it will find a home, or which story it will become part of. As designers, we begin with an idea, give it form, and release it into the world. From that moment on, the object continues its own journey.

This is why the Coffee Lovers ring becoming part of a coffee cup collection holds such special meaning for me.

A cup and a ring. One is an object used in everyday life; the other, a piece of jewellery worn on the body. Different materials, different scales, different functions. Yet both share the same point of departure: coffee culture.

I hope that one day the ring will also be exhibited in the coffee museum that Nihal and Murat Bursa are considering bringing to life.

Perhaps, among coffee cups from different periods and geographies, it will find its place as a small object that tells the story of how coffee culture can also be interpreted through jewellery.

There is something deeply meaningful about an object created by a designer leaving the studio where it was born and becoming part of another collection, another vision, and, over time, our cultural memory.

Because the life of an object is not limited to the moment it is designed and made. Through the relationships it forms with people, places, and time, it acquires new meanings.

The Coffee Lovers ring has now left my collection. It has begun a new life in the world of two collectors whose passion for coffee culture is at the heart of their collection.

And perhaps one day, it will continue to tell its story from within a museum display case.

Özlem Tuna

October 2026