How it’s made

Making the pots is a labor of love, involving weeks of work to create a final product.

We create all of our work by hand. We cut our own wood and make all of our own glazes from scratch.

First the piece is either thrown on the wheel or built by hand.

The pots are trimmed when they are leather hard, and then left to dry.

Decorations, handles, and modifications are sometimes made while the pots are still wet.

From there, the pots are left to dry

The pots are then bisque fired, (partially fired) to make them easier to handle and absorb the glaze.The bisqued pots are then glazed and decorated.

Glazed cups waiting to be loaded

We apply wads of clay to the bottom of the pots to keep them from sticking to the shelves and each other, and build stacks of pots to maximize space in the kiln.

Kevin prepares the wads

Loading the kiln takes about half a day as we meticulously use every available space. We can typically fire about 300 pots in one firing.

Loaded kiln, waiting to be bricked up

The door is bricked up brick by brick to seal up the kiln, and then lit.

We slowly bring up the temperature through the first 1000 degrees to avoid breaking the pots through thermal shock by slowly stoking the firebox.

Stoking the kiln

The kiln is stoked all night long and throughout the next day to bring the temperature up to Cone 11, or about 2350 degrees.

Jenn after a hard days work

It takes 3-4 days to cool down enough to touch, after which the pots are revealed. Waiting is the hardest part, as we can’t wait to see what the rivers of flames have done to the pots that you have put so much hard work in to.

Finally, the most important part- a toast to the kiln gods for blessing our pots with the subtle beauty they have achieved in the rivers of fire and ash.

World famous Hoffmann hooch