Buff stoneware
Our everyday clay: forgiving on the wheel and strong once fired.
The studio
From a lump
to a cup of tea.
Every pot here goes through the same six steps and two firings. It takes about three weeks, and it can't really be hurried.
01 · Wedge
Knead out the air.
Clay is kneaded on a canvas table, a bit like bread, until it's even and without air pockets that could crack in the kiln.
room temperature02 · Throw
Centre, open, pull.
On the wheel, the clay is pushed to the centre, opened with the thumbs, and the walls are pulled up in two or three slow passes.
on the wheel03 · Shape
Find the form.
With a rib and wet fingers the cylinder becomes a bowl, a vase or a cup. The rim gets compressed so it doesn't chip.
on the wheel04 · Trim
Carve the foot.
When it's leather-hard, the pot goes back on the wheel upside down and we carve the foot ring with a loop tool.
leather-hard05 · Dry & bisque
Slowly, then fire once.
Pots dry for a week or more, then go through a first bisque firing, around 950 °C, which makes them hard and porous.
bisque · around 950 °C06 · Glaze & fire
Glass on clay.
We dip them in glaze and fire again, around 1,240 °C for our stoneware. The glaze melts into glass; the clay becomes stone-hard.
glaze firing · around 1,240 °C
The space
Six wheels, one big table.
A ground-floor workshop with tall windows, six wheels, a hand-building table, a glaze room and two electric kilns.
The studio was started by a potter who spent ten years teaching before opening the doors. She still throws most of what's on the shelf.
What we use
Materials, plainly.
Porcelain
For thin cups and translucent bowls. Beautiful and unforgiving.
Our glazes
Mixed in the studio and tested on every clay.