Celebrating Idiosyncrasies - The Kuksa...

On a recent visit to Finland I received this 'Kuksa', a wooden cup carved out of a single piece of knotted wood, from my parents as a gift. Apparently it was hand-made by Anders Eklund and was purchased at the Christmas Market that took place at the Esplanade in central Helsinki.

I've been using it as my work-coffee-cup here at VCUQ, and it has received its fair share of admiring looks... In a world which some claim, due to the facilitated access to both wares and information, is becoming an 'ubiquitous porridge', where national and cultural idiosyncrasies have been diluted out (something I'd like to strongly dispute), it's nice to come across something, in this instance an artifact, that proves them wrong...

ps. The 'stick' attached to the cup's handle by a leather string is a short section of reindeer-horn that can be used for stirring...