After it leaves the studio

Living with handmade pottery

A handmade piece does almost everything a factory one does, and fails in two or three specific ways that nobody warns you about. This is the short list, plus what to tell whoever you give one to.

Can it go in the... Washing it When it breaks Giving one away
Used handmade mugs and a bowl on a kitchen counter, one stained inside and one crazed in the glaze
The ten questions

Where a handmade piece can and cannot go

Three colors down the left edge: green is yes, yellow is yes with a condition, and terracotta is no. The condition is nearly always the same one, which is that water has found its way into the clay body.

Dishwasher

Usually

A fully vitrified, uncrazed glazed piece survives a dishwasher indefinitely. Two things do not: a crazed glaze, which lets water into the body and drives the staining, and gold or luster, which comes straight off. The unglazed foot also stays damp longer than the rest, so it wants to face up.

Microwave

Usually

Fired clay and glaze are not metal, so they do not arc and they heat the food rather than themselves. Anything with gold, platinum or luster on it is metal and will spark. A thick mug still gets hot, because the drink inside it heats the wall.

Oven

Only if it was made for it

Thermal shock is about sudden change, not absolute temperature, so what cracks a dish is going from a cold counter into a hot oven. Put it in cold, let it come up with the oven, and never set it on a wet surface coming out. A piece with a very thick base or an abrupt change in wall thickness is the one that goes.

Stovetop

No

A burner heats one small area of the base far faster than the rest of the piece can follow. Flameware exists and is made from a completely different clay body. Studio stoneware is not it.

Freezer

If it is uncrazed

Water sitting inside a crazed glaze or a porous body expands as it freezes and splits the wall from the inside. A fully vitrified piece with a sound glaze is fine.

Outside through winter

Rarely

Same physics as the freezer, repeated every night for four months. A garden pot cracks in the first hard frost rather than in summer, and it cracks from the inside out. Bring anything you care about in.

Food and drink

Ask about the glaze

A glaze is safe for food when it is fully melted, fits the clay without crazing, and carries no soluble metals. Manufacturers test and state it. Claiming it yourself is a bigger commitment than most people realize.

Plants

Yes, with drainage

Think about the hole before you make the pot, not after. No hole means gravel in the bottom and careful watering. Unglazed stoneware breathes a little, terracotta breathes a lot, and a fully glazed pot breathes not at all.

Candles

Yes

A ceramic holder is one of the safest things to put a candle in, as long as the flame is not directly against a thin wall for hours. Wax comes out with hot water and patience.

The bottom of a wooden table

Not without help

An unglazed foot is essentially fine sandpaper. Rub it smooth with a stone or wet sandpaper, and put felt or silicone pads on anything that lives on furniture.

Washing

Five rules, and that is the whole method

  • Warm water, a soft sponge and ordinary dish soap. That is the whole method.
  • Skip the scouring pad on anything glossy. It scratches the glass and the shine does not come back.
  • Let the unglazed foot dry properly before stacking, or it holds water against the piece under it.
  • Do not leave a crazed piece soaking overnight. The water goes into the body and comes back out as a stain.
  • Dry a piece that has been in the dishwasher before putting it away, foot included.

Why crazing matters more than it looks

Crazing is the fine web of cracks that appears when a glaze shrinks more than the clay under it. It can turn up straight out of the kiln or six months later. Those lines are open all the way to the clay, which is why a crazed piece stains, holds water, and cannot go in a freezer. It is a glaze fit problem, not something you did to it in the kitchen.

When it breaks

Six damages, and what can honestly be done

Some of these are fixable. We say which ones are not rather than selling an optimistic repair, because a mug that has been glued is not a mug any more.

A chip on the rim

Not repairable invisibly, and a repaired drinking vessel stops being a drinking vessel. Sand the sharp edge smooth with wet sandpaper so it is safe to handle, and either accept it or make the repair visible on purpose.

Kintsugi with epoxy and mica

A clean break in two pieces

Epoxy and mica powder, following the kintsugi tradition, turns the break into the thing you look at. It is strong enough to handle and it is decorative from that point on.

Traditional kintsugi with urushi and gold

Brown staining in the crazing lines

Soak in warm water with an oxygen bleach powder for several hours. Most of it lifts. A crazed piece will stain again, because the lines are still open.

Glaze problems, causes and fixes

A rough or sharp foot

Wet sandpaper or a rubbing stone, always wet, never dry. Dry sanding fired clay releases silica dust.

Scouring, sanding and grinding

A piece that weeps or sweats

Water is passing through the body, which means it was underfired or the inside glaze is crazed. There is no repair, but the piece is still fine as a dry vessel.

Why did my pottery do that

A glaze surface that went dull

Scouring pads dull a glossy glaze permanently by scratching the glass. There is no polish that brings it back. A refire sometimes does.

Reglazing and refiring
Giving one away

What to tell the person you give it to

Most handmade pottery gets damaged by somebody who did not know any better, and three sentences prevent nearly all of it.

Three lines on a card

Hand wash is safest. A dishwasher will probably be fine, and hand washing definitely is.

No sudden temperature changes. Not fridge to oven, not hot pot onto a cold wet counter.

The bottom is unglazed and it will scratch. That is normal on handmade work, and a felt pad solves it.

What you can honestly claim Why did my pottery do that