How it's made
A single bowl passes through the studio over two to three weeks. Most of that time the pot is simply drying — rushing any of it is how pots crack.
The clay is wedged by hand to drive out air pockets and line up the particles. Air left in the body will expand in the kiln and blow a hole in the wall of the pot.
Each piece is centred and pulled up on the wheel in the morning. A form like the rice bowl is thrown to the same weight of clay every time, so a set comes out even.
Once the pot is leather-hard, it goes back on the wheel upside down and the foot is trimmed — the step that gives a pot its lightness and its true base.
Bone-dry pots are fired slowly to around 900°C. This first firing hardens the clay enough to handle and glaze without it dissolving.
Pots are dipped in ash or celadon glaze mixed in the back room. The thickness of the dip, and where the glaze pools, decides how the fired colour reads.
The kiln is packed full and fired in reduction to around 1250°C over a day, then left to cool for another. Only when it's cold do we see what we actually made.