DIY disposable goblet advice.

October 2, 2007 9:03 AM

Looking for ideas about how to make a sanitary, waterproof goblet for around ten bucks and an hour or so worth of labor.

I'm playing around with ideas for a thank-you ritual, and it seems that it would be really useful to be able to make my own (one-use) drinking cup for it. Does anyone have ideas about an easy way to do so? I'm not incompetent at making things, but I don't have any special equipment. I'd be disposing of the cup afterwards, so I don't want to spends weeks and weeks on this project. However, I do want something nicer than a plastic cup, you know?

I'm looking for suggestions about some kind of food-safe clay that I could fire in my stove, a cheap kind of wood that I could easily carve, a DIY wax-molding instructional video, or a link to a website called "How to make Ceremonial Goblets for Dummies".

Any ideas?

posted by Squid Voltaire to home & garden (18 comments total)

cut, scrape and polish a coconut shell. smaller part of the shell can be glued as the base. people do this all the time.
posted by dorian at 9:05 AM on October 2, 2007

Are you sure you want to dispose of the cup? Anything you make might be a keepsake.

One idea that occurs to me would be going to one of those paint-some-pottery places and painting a cup there.

If you want something disposable but cool, maybe consider something made from leaves, maybe even a good lettuce or cabbage leaf.

You can also try this: freezing nested water balloons. Put one balloon inside another (I suggest roughly spherical balloons). Using superhuman lip and lung strength, or a pump, inflate them both with air, and tie the inner balloon closed. Then fill the outer balloon with water and freeze the whole thing.

Once it's frozen, you can easily pop the outer balloon. The inner balloon will have clung to the top of the volume; you should be able to extract it pretty easily.

This will be hard to drink from unless you plan the shape very carefully. You can also selectively melt the edge using water or some other method.
posted by amtho at 9:13 AM on October 2, 2007

I have actually done the water balloon thing; it is possible to inflate two nested balloons, though I haven't done it for years. Choose soft balloons and stretch them - maybe inflate them both separately, then let them deflate, before nesting them.
posted by amtho at 9:16 AM on October 2, 2007

You could buy a ceramic cup and decorate it. Since washability and durability won't be a consideration, arcylic paints should do nicely.

If you are willing to spend a little more, there are businesses that provide unglazed ceramics and everything needed for decorating them onsite. It shouldn't take more than an hour to paint, but you would need to make a second trip to pick up the fired cup.

Polymer clay such as Fimo and Sculpy is not food-safe, although you can cure it in a home oven. It probably won't do anything too horrible to you if you are only drinking out of it once, but it might not taste good. If someone else is going to be drinking out of this, you might not want to go this route.
posted by yohko at 9:17 AM on October 2, 2007

Human skull. They're free for the taking.
posted by electroboy at 9:18 AM on October 2, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Why not mold something out of copper foil? You could roll it into a cone, or look up origami patters that would make a wonderful vessel for drinking. And then afterward, you can just crumple it up, or even better. melt it into a ball, bead, or coin that you can incorporate into jewelry as a talisman of your ceremony.
posted by hermitosis at 9:21 AM on October 2, 2007

Absolutely fantastic! Thank you all, these are really great suggestions. Electroboy, flagged as fantastic... although I really think a bone-cutting saw counts as "special equipment".
posted by Squid Voltaire at 9:23 AM on October 2, 2007

Supplies:
a new or used wine glass at a discount or thrift store.
a small roll of copper wire (hardware or crafts store)
handful of glass blobs (craft store, look in the floral section) or beads
needlenose pliers
snips

Twist copper wire around stem and bowl of glass and around the glass blobs. You could also string beads on the wire. No soldering necessary, just curl the cut ends into a spiral shape. The end result will look something like this flatware.

Alternatively, you could just skip the wire and hotmelt glue decorations to the outside of the glass. A small hotmelt glue gun can be had for about ~$4.
posted by jamaro at 9:28 AM on October 2, 2007

A half melon rind, or half of an orange peel. You can also buy chocolate cups for filling.
posted by amtho at 9:43 AM on October 2, 2007

Copper probably should be used as a drinking vessel, since it is toxic to humans.

You could always go with the stoner anything-can-be-made-into-a-pipe mentality. Find something that relative to whatever you're thanking the person for, plug up all the holes, and fill it with hooch.
posted by backseatpilot at 9:58 AM on October 2, 2007

Copper is toxic to humans? Why do they have copper pots and pans then - are they sealed with something?
posted by agregoli at 10:12 AM on October 2, 2007

And copper pipes?
posted by agregoli at 10:12 AM on October 2, 2007

Copper is fine. People have been using copper pots and vessels for thousands of years. Acid food will leach a tiny, tiny amount of copper but not enough to harm, especially if you don't leave it in there for hours.
posted by bonehead at 10:24 AM on October 2, 2007

Copper has some toxicity if ingested or applied internally. As a touch surface (or as a pipe carrying) the effect is quite opposite. Copper even exhibits antimicrobial properties.
posted by |n$eCur3 at 11:13 AM on October 2, 2007

Try veggies or fruits with conveniently-sized rinds, like pomegranate or smaller squash. You can burn it when you're finished.
posted by desuetude at 11:16 AM on October 2, 2007

Copper pots and pans are sealed with something. It's not contact with copper, it's contact + heat + acid that leaches possibly unhealthy amounts of copper into your food.

Also, the "people have been doing X for thousands of years" is a dumb argument. People have been doing lots of things for thousands of years, like using lead pipes and dying of scurvy.
posted by electroboy at 11:17 AM on October 2, 2007

The point is, a drinking vessel for a one-time ritual made from copper will be perfectly safe.

(There's copper in some fancy face creams now, too, due to supposed antioxidant properties, though I suspect it's really the germicidal properties that |n$eCur3 references. I don't think Neutrogena is poisoning people.)
posted by desuetude at 11:29 AM on October 2, 2007

Fold a paper cup

This has come in very handy several times. You can usually refill the cup 2-3 times before the paper starts getting too soggy.
posted by goshling at 7:59 PM on October 2, 2007