two people, one wheel
We are Marguerite and Ola. We have fired every piece we have ever sold in a kiln we repaired ourselves out of a scrapped dishwasher. Nothing here is slip-cast. If a rim is uneven, a wheel did that.
how a piece gets made
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wedged
Twenty kilos of clay, worked with a wire for twenty minutes. This is the boring part and it decides everything after it.
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thrown
Between 400 and 900 grams, centred, opened, pulled three times. We leave a mark at the foot where our thumb was. It is the giveaway.
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trimmed
Still leather-hard, on a dry wheel, with a loop tool. This is where a mug stops being a lump and starts being a mug.
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dried
Slowly, under plastic, for at least a week. Pieces that get rushed crack in the kiln and we pay for the electricity anyway.
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glazed
Dipped by hand. The glaze catches the throwing rings differently on every side, which is the entire point of throwing rings.
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fired
Cone 6, 1222°C, with a soak and a slow cool. Twelve to fourteen hours. We sit up for it.
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numbered
A pencil mark on the foot: the run number and the date. Photograph it before you wash it and the mark lasts the life of the piece.
why nothing matches
People ask us to make a set of four identical mugs. We say yes, and then they arrive slightly different in height, slightly different in weight, and each one has turned a little off-round in the drying. That is not a defect we failed to correct. That is the material telling you a person was here.
- wheel
- a Shimpo, older than Marguerite
- kiln
- 100L electric, two chambers of habit
- firing
- every three weeks, fridays
- reject rate
- about one in five goes in the wall
drag me →
the wheel room, saturdays
We are open 10:00–16:00. There is a wheel free and you are welcome to ruin something on it. Tea is terrible.
- saturday10:00 – 16:00
- addressUnit 4, Old Tannery Row
- classessix-week wheel intro, six people max
- mailhello@pomelo.example