Autumn is the season Sakura finds most comfortable for making. The humidity drops after September, the clay dries at a pace that is easier to manage than the rapid summer drying, and the cooler air in the studio makes long throwing sessions less tiring. It also happens to be the season when the Tamba clay body looks its best out of the kiln. Read more →
A custom tableware commission is a longer process than most people expect, and a shorter one than they fear. At Fresh Citadel, the typical lead time for a set of four place settings is two to three months from the first conversation to delivery. This article explains what happens in that time and what you need to think about before getting in touch.
Buying a handmade bowl is different from buying a commercial one, and not only because of the price. A handmade piece has specific qualities that affect how you use it every day, and it is worth knowing what to look for before you choose. This is not about aesthetics, though those matter too. It is about the practical experience of using the piece at breakfast every morning for the next ten years.
If you pick up a piece from Fresh Citadel and turn it over, the foot ring will show you something the glaze covers up everywhere else: a warm, slightly speckled grey-brown clay body with small dark flecks of iron. That clay comes from the Tamba region, about 60 kilometres north of Kobe, and it has been used by potters in Hyogo Prefecture for a very long time. Understanding what it does in the kiln helps explain why the finished pieces look the way they do.
Most people who buy handmade ceramics have heard the phrase 'reduction fired' without being entirely sure what it means. It comes up in studio descriptions and on gallery labels, and it sounds technical in a way that can feel slightly off-putting. The process is actually not complicated to understand, and knowing a little about it changes the way you look at a finished piece.
Handmade stoneware is not fragile in the way that people sometimes assume. A well-fired piece at 1,250 degrees Celsius is denser and more durable than most commercial tableware. But there are a few habits worth developing if you want the piece to look its best after ten years of daily use, not just the first week.
People arrive at the first wheel-throwing session with a range of expectations. Some have watched a lot of videos and think they know roughly what to do. Some have never seen a wheel in person. Both groups usually find that the reality is different from what they imagined, and that is fine. This is what actually happens in a three-hour introduction at Fresh Citadel.
Clay shaped slowly, kept for years. Write to us
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