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Melissa Johnson is the creator of Miss Havisham’s Curiosities, a décor and lifestyle brand specializing in elegant objects with razor-edged wit. Best known for her now-infamous insult teacups—featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s Tea4Tuesday segments, as well as Bust, Forbes, Boing Boing, and Bored Panda—she transforms traditional Victorian tea rituals into pointed acts of social commentary.

Her earliest inspiration came from her grandmother, an antique collector with the mouth of a sailor. When something broke, Grandma mended it by painting a curse across it in nail polish. Her brand of outsider art expressed the frustrations of women of her generation in small but explosive ways.

Before turning her talents toward porcelain, Melissa spent more than two decades in New York and Los Angeles as a production and development executive, creating content for The Colbert Report, SNL, Comedy Central, MTV, Oxygen, and others. A writer, producer, and lifelong collector of strange and beautiful objects, she is especially drawn to the ways women’s anger, humor, and resilience echo through decorative arts—like a deceptively delicate teacup.

All of her china is food safe and fully functional. She wants you to insult your dinner guests and speak your mind with your pinky up. Melissa lives in Los Angeles with her puppeteer husband and their ever-growing cat circus.