<![CDATA[I now have my own Utah teapot!]]>I now have my own Utah teapot!

This ordinary teapot is the "hello world" object of computer graphics and has cameos in countless productions.

A thread on teapots and UNIX… 🧵

Photo: My Melitta teapot, 2026-04-16.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/7731f08c-e19a-4ff7-a335-f7d7005a7277/i-now-have-my-own-utah-teapotRSS for NodeFri, 15 May 2026 08:26:21 GMTFri, 17 Apr 2026 00:35:48 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 20:06:50 GMT]]>@moelassus Not yet. But hopefully I'll meet him and others when I speak on UNIX V4 at SIGGRAPH this summer! I'm bringing my teapot :).

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/ap/users/115918347060720003/statuses/116467145806369435https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/ap/users/115918347060720003/statuses/116467145806369435Sat, 25 Apr 2026 20:06:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 20:04:33 GMT]]>@thalia Did you get Martin to sign your teapot?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/moelassus/statuses/116467136841322522https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/moelassus/statuses/116467136841322522Sat, 25 Apr 2026 20:04:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Sat, 18 Apr 2026 20:53:57 GMT]]>@thalia our Utah teapot prefers resting on diffuse mirrored surfaces

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.v.st/users/th/statuses/116427694881754513https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.v.st/users/th/statuses/116427694881754513Sat, 18 Apr 2026 20:53:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Sat, 18 Apr 2026 14:23:41 GMT]]>@thalia All the versions and improvements are visible at https://graphics.cs.utah.edu/teapot/

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://bsd.network/users/ledeuns/statuses/116426160336412616https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://bsd.network/users/ledeuns/statuses/116426160336412616Sat, 18 Apr 2026 14:23:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 23:31:37 GMT]]>@thalia Thank you so much for this thread! My fiancée took me to the Computer History Museum a while back and I had to explain to her why I was so excited about a teapot.

That explanation started as "This is THE teapot!" and she very patiently asked questions to help me explain it to her.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://zomglol.wtf/users/jamie/statuses/116422652568281541https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://zomglol.wtf/users/jamie/statuses/116422652568281541Fri, 17 Apr 2026 23:31:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 21:53:58 GMT]]>@thalia One of my favorite art pieces returns the Utah teapot to a different kind of physicality:

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Grafikdemo

Grafikdemo is a sculpture which I have made in 2004. It is a wireframe model of a teapot mounted inside a Commodore CBM cabinet. The model can be rotated in two axis by pushing keys on the keyboard. There is no control electronics involved, just some relays which switch the motors to move the model. http://www.niklasroy.com/project/32/grafikdemo

favicon

Vimeo (vimeo.com)

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://merveilles.town/users/rezmason/statuses/116422268569351101https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://merveilles.town/users/rezmason/statuses/116422268569351101Fri, 17 Apr 2026 21:53:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:25:27 GMT]]>@thalia aha, true dedication 🙂

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mendeddrum.org/users/fanf/statuses/116421684599667970https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mendeddrum.org/users/fanf/statuses/116421684599667970Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:25:27 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:23:03 GMT]]>@pja
Somebody should have told them that extraordinary reconstruction means were in order; it wasn't just "yet another" pottery.

@thalia

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/dougmerritt/statuses/116421675143107864https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/dougmerritt/statuses/116421675143107864Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:23:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:01:51 GMT]]>@thalia @dougmerritt Sadly the factory had a fire & they lost many of their pottery molds, including the Utah teapot ones 😞

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://functional.cafe/users/pja/statuses/116421591786534582https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://functional.cafe/users/pja/statuses/116421591786534582Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:01:51 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:52:43 GMT]]>@fanf I've been checking eBay every day for months.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/ap/users/115918347060720003/statuses/116421319961366008https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/ap/users/115918347060720003/statuses/116421319961366008Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:52:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:46:27 GMT]]>@thalia @aap @icm Where did you get it from? The factory which made them burned down a few years ago and to my knowledge this model of teapot has not been made since https://www.kreiszeitung.de/lokales/niedersachsen/grossbrand-rauch-varel-sieben-hallen-von-porzellanfabrik-in-vollbrand-video-zeigt-flammenmeer-92373560.html

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/dpk/statuses/116421295291353365https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/dpk/statuses/116421295291353365Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:46:27 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:43:08 GMT]]>@thalia Maybe the Sutherland VW still exists? IIRC that was done by students crawling over the body with measuring instruments and tape.

I met Ivan Sutherland a couple of times when ballroom dancing in Palo Alto back in the 80s. Slightly starstruck I asked if he was the founder-of-CG Ivan Sutherland and he laughed "No, I'm the Ivan Sutherland who likes dancing". TAed for Jim Blinn's graphics course at Caltech; glad to see he finally swapped out that green sweater.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutherland%27s_Volkswagen

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/oddhack/statuses/116421282297258253https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/oddhack/statuses/116421282297258253Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:43:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:57:40 GMT]]>@thalia Where is the Mandrill?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/fubaroque/statuses/116420395724967052https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/fubaroque/statuses/116420395724967052Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:57:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:23:52 GMT]]>@paco @thalia and this, which carefully documents the history and various versions: https://graphics.cs.utah.edu/teapot/

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/users/ricci/statuses/116420262793013189https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/users/ricci/statuses/116420262793013189Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:23:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:22:49 GMT]]>@paco @thalia there's also an annual teapot rendering competition in one of our graphics classes: https://graphics.cs.utah.edu/trc/

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/users/ricci/statuses/116420258663521277https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/users/ricci/statuses/116420258663521277Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:22:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:21:09 GMT]]>@paco @thalia there are STL files out there, I've printed one

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/users/ricci/statuses/116420252089374475https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/users/ricci/statuses/116420252089374475Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:21:09 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:47:50 GMT]]>@thalia Awesome thread. Seems like it would be a neat 50-year journey to 3D print a teapot from those original lines.

I know how to do exactly none of this. So I just have to admire and appreciate the folks who do.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/paco/statuses/116420121077276024https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/paco/statuses/116420121077276024Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:47:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:15:56 GMT]]>@azonenberg
A for effort!

The next logical step is to upload yourself into...wait, I've lost track of this

@thalia

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/dougmerritt/statuses/116419523779086126https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/dougmerritt/statuses/116419523779086126Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:15:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 08:51:40 GMT]]>@thalia ooh, where did you get it from? aiui those melitta teapots were made by friesland porzellan https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/47320.html but sadly they had a fire in 2023 which destroyed all their patterns and they can no longer make any more https://friesland-porzellan.de/produkte/information

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mendeddrum.org/users/fanf/statuses/116419192455549724https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mendeddrum.org/users/fanf/statuses/116419192455549724Fri, 17 Apr 2026 08:51:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 08:25:15 GMT]]>@thalia The CRT looked like the Picture System 2. A gimbal mount allowed the monitor to tip up and down.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.world/users/stevewfolds/statuses/116419088602397767https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.world/users/stevewfolds/statuses/116419088602397767Fri, 17 Apr 2026 08:25:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:45:11 GMT]]>@thalia High five! Honestly, it's a good teapot design, and the fact it's such a prominent artifact in 3D graphics history had me getting one, too 🙂

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/funkylab/statuses/116418931000107253https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/funkylab/statuses/116418931000107253Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:45:11 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:30:33 GMT]]>@thalia @dougmerritt That would be cool. I've never got my hands on a *real* one (i.e. correct brand). I wonder if you could 3d print a mold from the data then make a real one out of clay and glaze it?

When I built a life sized Cornell Box (now my 4yo's bedroom but the paint scheme stayed) during my house renovation I used the closest thing I could find at a local store which was recognizably a teapot but not The Teapot.

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://ioc.exchange/users/azonenberg/statuses/116418873467514162https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://ioc.exchange/users/azonenberg/statuses/116418873467514162Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:30:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 02:28:25 GMT]]>@thalia 418 i'm a teapot 🫖

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.neat.computer/users/oliviablob/statuses/116417685435586854https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.neat.computer/users/oliviablob/statuses/116417685435586854Fri, 17 Apr 2026 02:28:25 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I now have my own Utah teapot! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 01:19:59 GMT]]>@stevewfolds Do you know which model it was?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/ap/users/115918347060720003/statuses/116417416373126486https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/ap/users/115918347060720003/statuses/116417416373126486Fri, 17 Apr 2026 01:19:59 GMT