You may be wondering how your cups, bowls and plates go from lumps of clay to finished works of art and use in your every day life. How it's done may surprise you.
Every stoneware piece starts as a lump of clay. The artist removes and weighs the amount of clay needed to make each piece. Clay comes from a supplier with a recommended firing temperature. We'll cover that later.
The artist will place the clay on the center of a pottery wheel and spin the clay while forming the main shape of the piece with their hands. By pinching, pressing and guiding the shape of the clay while it spins, cups, bowls, plates and other round shapes can be made and formed into the ware.
Once "thrown", the clay is allowed to dry for up to two weeks to remove any moisture. Skipping this step may cause the moisture expand and explode during the firing process, destroying the ware as well as damaging other wares and/or the kiln itself.
It is then placed carefully inside of the kiln and layered with other wares to fill the interior and turned on. The kiln gets up to about 1800 degrees Celsius in order to "bake" and transform the unfired "greenware" into bisqueware.
Glaze is applied to the surface of the piece to give it color and seal the clay from the food or drink that is touching it. Once fired for a second time (the "glaze firing"), the piece is now food-safe, microwave safe, and dishwasher safe. This firing gets hotter (upwards of 2200 degrees Celsius) and tends to take a few hours more to reach temp and then cool after firing is complete.
We batch-fire our wares to reduce electricity use, as each firing takes around 24 hours depending on the type of clay or glaze. The number of wares per firing can vary depending on the size and number in each kiln load, so larger orders and batches can take multiple firings and several days for their bisque or glaze firings to complete.
Making a piece from clay to finished product can take up to six weeks to complete, depending on batching. We try to keep our production times low so you get the cup, mug or other pottery you love as quickly as possible.
We create with care for every detail on every ware going anywhere, from clay to completion.