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Ceramics studio · Adelaide’s inner north

A pot has a lip,
a neck,
a shoulder,
a belly
and a foot.

Rutile noun A ceramics studio in Adelaide’s inner north.

Wheel

Fig. 1. A pot, and the words for it. Drag a dot to change the line; drag the pot to spin the wheel.

A freshly thrown jar of wet buff clay, flecked with iron, standing on a potter’s wheel in a dim studio

The pot on the wheel changes as you move the seven dots. Now it is about 17.0 cm tall and 14.6 cm across, in Rutile blue. Its sizes are written under it.

Left and Right move it out and in. Up and Down move it up and down. Hold Shift for bigger steps. Home puts it back.

Out of the kiln: Rutile blue

17.0 cm tall · 14.6 cm across · holds about 1.5 litres

Glaze

Deep in the hollows, honey tan on the edges. Pale green-grey glass. The specks show through. Soft and matte, freckled with iron.

Keep

Your pot: about 17.0 cm tall and 14.6 cm across, in Rutile blue.

Rutile

Rutile ROO-tile noun

  1. 1 A mineral with titanium in it. A pinch in a blue glaze pulls the colour into streaks as the kiln cools.
  2. 2 A ceramics studio in Adelaide’s inner north. We throw plates, bowls and cups for restaurants and homes, make one-off pots for the shop at the front, and teach at the wheels out the back.

[From the Latin rutilus, reddish. Odd, for a thing that makes blue run.]

Pull the belly outAsk about a commission

buff Our clay, and the colour it fires

In this letter buff bisque belly breaking

buff

buff adjective

  1. 1 The colour of our clay when it’s fired bare: oatmeal and honey, freckled where the iron comes up.
  2. 2 Of stoneware: ours. Stoneware is clay fired hot enough to close up and ring when you tap it.

We use one clay for everything, so every pot on this page starts buff.

[First the name of a soft leather made from buffalo hide, then its colour.]

Fig. 2

Fig. 2. The ground of this page, eight times up. The dark flecks are iron. We don’t sieve them out: in the kiln they bloom into freckles and come up through every glaze.

bisque

bisque noun

The first, cooler firing, which turns clay into something that can take a glaze.

[Short for biscuit, from the French for twice-cooked. For us it’s the first time in.]

belly

belly noun

The widest part of a pot.

Yours is 14.6 cm across, 9.5 cm up from the foot.

breaking

breaking noun

When a glaze thins over an edge and shows a different colour there.

Yours will break at the lip and pool at the neck.

see dip

commission Plates and bowls made for how you eat

In this letter commission how one goes celadon centring

commission

commission noun

  1. 1 For a restaurant: a run of plates, bowls and cups made for your menu and how the kitchen plates up.
  2. 2 For a home: a set made for your table and what you eat off it every day.

[From the Latin for trusting something to someone.]

commission

A commission starts with how you eat.

How one goes

  1. Step 1

    1 Talk. Tell us what you’d like made and how it’ll be used. The form under Y is the way in.

  2. Step 2

    2 Tiles. We fire test tiles in the glazes you’re drawn to, so you can see them in your own light.

  3. Step 3

    3 A sample. We throw one of each piece for you to hold, stack and use for a while.

  4. Step 4

    4 The run. Then we throw the lot, trim every foot and fire them twice.

  5. Step 5

    5 Again. We keep your profiles and your tiles. see keep

celadon

celadon noun

A family of pale green-grey glazes first made in China, and later in Korea. The name is usually said to come from a character in an old French novel who dressed in grey-green.

Our Creek wash is a distant cousin.

centring

centring noun

Getting the clay to spin true in the middle of the wheel. The hardest part, and the first.

How long does it take? It depends on the run and on the kiln. We’ll talk timing once you’ve held the sample, not before. Ask about a commission

dip Our three glazes, and how they go on

In this letter dip rutile blue creek wash speckled white your pot, nine ways

dip

dip verb

To glaze a pot by holding it by the foot, lowering it lip first into the bucket, counting to three and lifting it out.

In the bucket every glaze looks like grey cream; the colour only turns up in the kiln.

noun One coat.

  1. 1 One dip: thin, so edges break and the clay shows through.
  2. 2 Two dips: our usual.
  3. 3 Three dips: heavy, so it runs and pools, and we keep it well clear of the foot.

Fig. 3

Rows of small glaze test tiles hanging on a timber board: deep blue breaking to tan, a pale grey-green wash and a speckled white
Fig. 3. Test tiles on the board by the glaze bench.

glaze

Rutile blue

  1. 1 On a rim breaks to honey tan
  2. 2 In a hollow pools deep and inky
  3. 3 Good on bowls, where the curve inside holds a pool

glaze

Creek wash

  1. 1 On a rim nearly clear, and the speckle shows through
  2. 2 In a hollow a sea-glass green line
  3. 3 Good on plates, where it lets the clay speak

glaze

Speckled white

  1. 1 On a rim goes to buff
  2. 2 In a hollow stays soft and chalky
  3. 3 Good on cups and jugs, freckled all over

Fig. 4. Your pot, nine ways: each glaze at one, two and three dips, the way we’d test it. Pick one and it goes on the wheel.

everyday Plates, bowls and cups, made to be used

In this letter everyday the range

everyday

everyday adjective

Of plates, bowls and cups: made to be used every day, not saved for visitors.

We throw them in runs, for restaurant kitchens and for homes.

Fig. 5

A table laid with handmade plates, bowls and cups in blue, pale green-grey and speckled white, with dal, flatbread, citrus and a pot of tea
Fig. 5. Lunch on the everyday range: dal, flatbread, figs and tea.

Fig. 6

Fig. 6. The range on one shelf, drawn to one scale, with yours at the end. Sizes are worked out from each piece’s line.
PieceAcrossTallHolds about
T-01 Dinner plate Rutile blue27.0 cm3.0 cm—, not measured for plates
T-02 Side plate Creek wash21.0 cm2.4 cm—, not measured for plates
T-03 Pasta bowl Speckled white23.0 cm5.5 cm830 mL
T-04 Serving bowl Rutile blue26.0 cm10.0 cm2.7 L
T-05 Rice bowl Speckled white12.0 cm7.0 cm330 mL
T-06 Cup Creek wash8.5 cm9.0 cm260 mL
T-07 Jug Creek wash13.1 cm16.0 cm1.2 L
— Yours Rutile blue14.6 cm17.0 cm1.5 L

Made to match, not to be twins: every plate’s thrown, so each one’s a little its own. Want it in another glaze? Ask, and we’ll fire you test tiles first.

kiln Where everything goes twice

In this letter kiln as thrown, as fired keep

kiln

kiln KILN, or KIL: potters argue about the n. noun

The hot, shut room where our pots are fired, and the reason everything takes as long as it takes.

We fire twice: once to bisque, and once more with the glaze on.

[Through Old English, from the Latin culina, a kitchen.]

Fig. 7

as thrown19.3 cm tallas fired17.0 cm tall
Fig. 7. Clay shrinks by about an eighth between the wheel and the table.

To end up like yours, we’d throw it about 19.3 cm tall and 16.6 cm across.

keep

keep verb

What we do with your profiles and your test tiles, so if a plate breaks we can make you another.

kiln

Opening the kiln is like opening the post. You know roughly what’s in it.

lesson Come and sit at the wheel

In this letter lesson leather-hard lip

Fig. 8

A potter’s wet hands pulling up the wall of a clay cylinder on a turning wheel, long sleeves buttoned at the wrist
Fig. 8. Pulling up a wall. Wet hands, slow wheel.

lesson

lesson noun

An evening at the wheel, with an apron on and wet hands.

  1. 1 Wheel from scratch. Four evenings: wedge and centre; open and pull a wall; shape a bowl; trim a foot ring.
  2. 2 Handles, lids and spouts. For people who can already throw a cylinder and want it to do something.
  3. 3 A glaze afternoon. Dip the pots you’ve made, watch them go in grey, and see for yourself why the blue runs.

What you take home: your pots, once they’ve been glazed and fired.

[From the Latin lectio, a reading. There’s no reading.]

leather-hard

leather-hard adjective

Dry enough to hold its shape, still soft enough to trim.

lip

lip noun

The top edge of a pot, where the glaze thins and your mouth goes.

Yours opens to 8.9 cm.

lesson

Nobody centres on their first go. That’s the lesson, and it’s a good one.

Ask about classes

one-off Pots we make once

In this letter one-off tall vase moon jar ribbed vase

one-off

one-off noun

A pot made once, to try a shape or push a glaze further than a plate would let us. We glaze them by eye, so no two come out alike. When one’s finished, it goes on the front shelf of the shop.

Fig. 9

Three one-off stoneware pots on a low plinth: a tall blue vase, a speckled white moon jar and a ribbed vase with a pale green lip
Fig. 9. A tall vase, a moon jar and a ribbed vase, on the plinth by the window.

one-off

1 Tall vase

about 31.0 cm tall

Thrown as two pots and joined while they were soft. The blue ran over the shoulder, and we let it.

one-off

2 Moon jar

about 24.0 cm tall

Two deep bowls joined rim to rim. The seam’s still there if you run a finger round.

one-off

3 Ribbed vase

about 22.0 cm tall

Combed on the wheel while it was wet, bare but for a pale wash at the lip that pools in every groove.

shop The front room, with the wheels out the back

In this letter shop seconds shino shoulder slip

shop

shop noun

The front room of the studio. What’s on the shelf changes every time the kiln’s opened: tableware, a few one-offs, and a box of seconds.

Come in when it’s open and you’ll probably hear someone trimming a foot ring out the back.

If you’re coming a long way, ask through the form first.

Fig. 10

Timber shelves of plates, bowls and cups in the studio shop, with a doorway through to the wheel room
Fig. 10. The shelves at the front, and the wheel room through the door.

seconds

seconds plural noun

Pots with small faults, a warped rim or a glaze run, priced to go to a good kitchen.

shino

shino noun

A thick, milky glaze first made in Japan, white where it sits heavy and blushed warm where it thins.

We don’t make one, but you’ll hear the word in any studio.

shoulder

shoulder noun

Where a pot turns in from the belly toward the neck.

Yours turns in 13.0 cm up.

slip

slip noun

Clay and water mixed to cream. It’s what makes a thrower’s hands shine.

throw Why it’s called throwing

In this letter throw tenmoku trim

throw

throw verb To shape clay on a turning wheel. [Old English thrawan, to twist or to turn.]

Nobody throws anything. Long before it meant tossing a ball, the word meant to twist or to turn, and on the wheel it still does.

You start with a ball of clay, wedged so there’s no air left in it, and slap it down as near the middle of the wheel head as you can manage. Then you centre it: wet hands, elbows braced on your knees, leaning in until the lump stops wobbling and spins true. It’s the hardest part, and it comes first.

Then you open it with your thumbs and pull the wall up between two hands, slowly, a little thinner each time. The shape comes from where you press and where you let go. A belly is a place you pushed out. A neck is a place you gathered in. The lip is the last thing your fingers touch before you stop the wheel.

That’s why we name the parts of a pot like a person’s: you make them with your body, and you can feel where each one is with your eyes shut. Every pot on this page is one line, turned round. The one in Fig. 1 is waiting for yours.

Back to Fig. 1

tenmoku

tenmoku noun

A family of iron glazes that fire from treacle brown to near black. The name is the Japanese reading of Tianmu, mountains in China.

We don’t make one; our brown is the clay itself.

trim

trim verb

When a pot’s leather-hard, to turn it upside down on the wheel and carve its foot ring.

yours Tell us what you’d like made

In this letter yours your shape colophon

yours

yours pronoun

What belongs to you: the pot you drew in Fig. 1, and whatever you’d like us to make.

Yours so far: a pot about 17.0 cm tall and 14.6 cm across, in Rutile blue.

Fill in what you can.

What’s it about?
Who’s it for?

Say, pasta bowls for a new menu, or a set of six for home.

Your shape

No shape yet. Draw one in Fig. 1 and press ‘Add this shape to my enquiry’. Go to the wheel

your shape

No shape yet. When you add one from Fig. 1, it waits here with its sizes, worked out from your line.

yours

We read it. We write back. If it’s a commission, we start with test tiles.

Thrown by: the studio. Fig. 1 is our house jar, about 17.0 cm tall and 14.6 cm across, in Rutile blue.

Set in Young Serif and Alegreya Sans. One clay, one rule for how glaze sits, and no number that wasn’t worked out from the line of a pot, most of them yours. There are no entries under Z.

Back to Fig. 1