Caring for handmade stoneware
Simple habits that keep your pottery looking new for years.
From wet clay to your table: a firing cycle
Why a mug takes three weeks to make, and what happens in the kiln.
People are often surprised that a simple mug takes us about three weeks. Most of that time is waiting.
On day one, the potter throws the body on the wheel and sets it aside. The next day, when it is leather hard, we trim the base and pull and attach the handle. Then it dries slowly, under plastic at first, for about a week. In Puducherry’s humidity, drying too fast causes cracks, so we are patient.
Once bone dry, the pots go into the kiln for the first firing, called bisque, at about 950°C. This makes the clay hard enough to handle but still porous enough to take glaze. We then dip or paint each piece in glaze, clean the bases by hand, and load the kiln again.
The glaze firing climbs to 1,260°C over about twelve hours and cools for another day and a half. Opening the kiln is the most exciting morning of the fortnight. Glazes that looked grey and chalky come out glossy blue or speckled oatmeal, and every load holds a few surprises.
