Coffee, Clay & Conversation

Studio notes: a spring of first firings

Three months, four beginner courses, two hen parties and roughly 900 pots through the kiln. A recap of a very good spring in the studio.

How to look after your handmade ceramics

Handmade pots are tougher than they look, but a few habits will keep your mugs and bowls looking their best for decades.

Five things beginners get wrong on the wheel (and how to fix them)

After hundreds of first sessions, the same five habits come up again and again. Here is what they are and the small corrections that fix them.

Beginner's guide to wheel throwing: what to expect in your first session

Your first session will not go the way you imagine. Here's an honest account of what most people experience — and why that's completely normal.

Glaze chemistry for beginners: understanding what makes colours change in the kiln

Why does a glaze that looks grey come out vivid blue? Kiln chemistry is genuinely fascinating once you understand the basics.

Behind the scenes: how we run our bisque and glaze firings

Loading a kiln is an art form. Here's how we approach it, why we stack the way we do, and how long everything takes.

The coffee: why we chose Extract Roastery

We visited six local roasteries before choosing our coffee partner. Here's what we were looking for and what won us over.