Partners & Standards | Reese Lansangan

Studio Partners

Who we fire alongside

Kiln space, glaze materials, and shelf time rarely come from one workshop alone. These are the studios, suppliers, and shops we work with on a regular basis, and the reasons the relationship has held up over multiple firings.

Clay supplier

Andes Mid-Fire Stoneware

Our cone 6 stoneware body comes from a small yard that blends and pugs in batches we can actually track. Consistent iron content means the speckle in our oat glaze stays predictable from one delivery to the next.

Shared kiln

Barrio Norte Community Kiln

We rent shelf space in a shared electric kiln for larger runs. It keeps our firing schedule honest and lets us test new glaze recipes without committing a full load to an untried surface.

Glaze materials

Raw Materials Co-op

Frit, tin, and cobalt oxide arrive through a potters' co-op that splits bulk orders between four studios. It is the only reason our deep teal recipe stays affordable enough to keep in rotation.

Stockist

Mercado de Barro

A neighborhood shop that carries our morning cups and seconds planters on a consignment basis. They photograph each piece on their own shelf, which is how most of our local buyers first see the work.

Packaging

Corrugated Salvage Workshop

Double-wall boxes and molded pulp inserts come from a workshop that reuses offcut board. It is not glamorous, but it is the reason fewer than one in a hundred pieces arrives chipped.

Trade kitchen

Cocina Sur Test Kitchen

A small restaurant kitchen that runs our serving plates and bowls through a full service week before we list a new shape. Their notes on chipping, staining, and heat retention shape what actually reaches the catalog.

Questions that come up before a piece ships

Most of what buyers ask is about how a finished piece behaves once it leaves the studio shelf. Here are the answers we give most often, drawn from the same notes we keep on each listing.

Still unsure about a specific piece? The help page covers packing and shipping questions, and contact reaches the studio directly.

Speckles come from iron in the clay body and from the glaze recipe itself, and both react to how hot the kiln runs and how long a piece sits at peak temperature. A run fired slightly cooler can read lighter and more even; a hotter run pulls the speckles out and darkens the glaze where it pools. That variation is the point of small-batch work, not a defect. The photos on each listing show the actual piece you would receive.

The stoneware body is dense after a cone 6 firing, so mugs hold heat longer than thinner porcelain and handles stay comfortable for a full grip. Bowls stack without grinding against each other because the feet are trimmed flat. Serving plates sit stable on the counter and move from oven to table without wobbling. All interior glazes are food-safe and dishwasher-friendly, though hand washing keeps the surface bright over the years.

A piece lands on the seconds shelf when a glaze run, a slight warp, or a kiln kiss keeps it out of the main catalog. The flaw is cosmetic and does not affect how the piece functions. Every seconds listing documents what went wrong in the photos and the notes, so you can see the run or the warp before deciding. Seconds are sold as-is and often grouped into sets.

Every measurement is taken after the glaze firing, once the clay has finished shrinking, so the numbers reflect the piece as it arrives rather than the wet form on the wheel. Hand-thrown and slab-built work still varies piece to piece, and a mug listed at roughly 3.4 inches tall may come in a fraction above or below. If an exact size matters for a shelf or a cabinet, ask before ordering and we will measure the specific piece.

Runs are small by design, usually twelve to twenty pieces for mugs and six to ten for larger bowls, because that is what one person can throw, trim, glaze, and fire in a cycle. Restocks follow kiln openings rather than a fixed schedule, so a sold-out glaze family may return in a few weeks or sit out a season. The studio notes on each listing say why a run ended and whether another is planned.

Why buyers trust the shelf

What you can count on before a piece ships

Every listing is written from the studio bench, not from a marketing sheet. Clay body, glaze family, measured dimensions, firing type and food-safe finish are recorded while the piece is still warm from the kiln, so the description matches the object you unwrap.

Runs are small and restocks are irregular. When a glaze behaves differently than expected, that shows up in the notes rather than being smoothed over.

Measured after glaze firing

Dimensions are taken once the glaze has matured and the piece has cooled, not from greenware. A mug listed at 3.4 inches tall is 3.4 inches in your hand.

Photos of the actual piece

Speckle density and glaze pooling shift between firings. The photos show the specific cup, bowl or planter on the shelf, including any cosmetic flaw on seconds.

Food-safe finishes, stated plainly

Interior glazes on cups, bowls and serving plates are formulated for food contact and fired to cone 6. Where a piece is decorative only, the listing says so.

Honest about limits

Handmade stoneware varies. Rims are not perfectly round, handles differ slightly, and a run can sell out before the next kiln opening. We say that up front.

Curious how a specific piece behaves on the table? See the Morning Cup listing or ask the studio directly.