Sophia Exintaris : Experience Architect

One of the problems I’ve always had is that I my hands are hyper-sensitive to heat.

In itself this is small, but in 2017, I decided to stop having milky coffees. I’ve never digested milk very well, and it was time to stop it again. So it would be mostly americanos for me in 2017!

Sadly, too many coffee shops serve a combination of 90C degree hot water, cheap and thin cups, or cups without cardboard sleeves at all!! I even burn myself on milky coffees which are meant to be served at 60C, so I’d be doomed with hot water ones. I needed to do something!

And I thought… I can make a cup sleeve!

Here are the ideas I came up with one day about this cup sleeve.

And the next day I made it.

Handmade leather coffee cup sleeve and loyalty card wallet! (First iteration) My hands are hyper-sensitive to heat, so I always – ALWAYS – need a coffee cup sleeve. And way too many places these days are starting to economise on them… or assume their customers have kevlar hands. I'm also very loyal to many coffee places (oxymoron?) and so I carry quite a few loyalty cards around all the time… and I thought… what if I made myself something to save my hands, carry the cards and smell, look and feel awesome at the same time?! And I made a leather cup sleeve!! There will be more iterations. Maybe a button & strap for keeping the cards in place. We'll see. It's an experiment :) And it also pleases me that I will be responsible for a lot less cardboard in the bins from now on!!! #leatherwork #design #selfdrafted #handmade #memade #leather #seamstressSophie #green #ecofriendly #productDesign #UX #UXisMoreThanInterfaces

A photo posted by Eurydice Sophie Exintaris (@eurydice13) on Jan 21, 2017 at 6:28am PST

I’m using it now.

My first experience with it taught me that the cards are a bit stiff in there and it might be better if there were fewer of them… so I might make a second pocket, split out the cards, and increase the insulation for my hands at the same time!