ASHMOLEAN Museum designer Byung Kim is no mug – his striking cups and saucers have won praise from top online retailer Etsy.

The exhibition designer at the museum in Beaumont Street, Oxford, took time out to design his own crafts, including the colourful mugs, cups and saucers.

Mr Kim, 43, said: "I designed ceramic tableware which has been nominated for the Etsy award 2016 in the UK and Ireland.

"Etsy is a global crafts community where millions of crafts people are selling their works.

"As a museum designer every single object in the Ashmolean Museum is my inspiration and I always explore to bring tradition into the modern style of my designs.

"I love geometrical forms and my mug an cup designs were inspired by the German art school Bauhaus."

Mr Kim's mugs sell for £21 online while the cups and saucers cost £29.

They are not yet on sale in the museum shop but Mr Kim, originally from Seoul, South Korea, said he would be "honoured" if the shop sold them.

He arrived at the Ashmolean in 2011 to work on the renovation of the Egyptian gallery and is currently designing an exhibition of Islamic art due to open in October.

Museum spokesman Tom Jowett said: "Byung's new range of mugs is really taking off.

"Etsy have 1.6m active sellers and 25 million buyers, so we are all really pleased with Byung's nomination.

"He's a very talented and popular member of staff here, so we're all rooting for him."