Like a rock, clay is heavy. By nature, it is only accessible to those who live near the source. For instance, our white stoneware is made within our county by one man. He cannot be identified online, but his bags of clay are the first to go in the local studio.

From hand to hand, clay undergoes many tactile transformations. It comes to us in an aged, cream cheese-like block. On the wheel, it is moistened again. The beginning of a shape is formed. It is dried until it reaches a specific hardness. Cheese, or leather hard, it’s called. The excess skin is trimmed, cascading in ribbons. As it sheds, the silhouette in mind becomes clear. The result is left to dry until warm to the touch. Now it can be handed off to our kiln.

With every handling, clay condenses. It becomes sharper, harder and much more real. What was once a quarry is made into a working slurry, then solidified. Unglazed, it is a human made rock.