Reactive glaze, and the rest of what we fire
Reactive glaze is the whole character of this range, and it is worth understanding before you order. The oxides in the glaze move in the heat, so the firing finishes the line where two colours meet. Thickness, position in the kiln and the shape underneath all pull that line around.
What that means in practice: the piece that arrives will be the same glaze, the same shape and the same colours as the one photographed, and the pattern will be its own. Speckles land differently. A fade can sit higher or lower. On a set of four, the four will look like a family rather than four copies.
The glazes in the range
| Glaze | What it does | Pieces |
|---|---|---|
| Reactive | Oxides move in the heat, so the boundary between colours is finished by the firing. No two pieces match exactly. | 219 |
| Glossy | A high shine over an even colour, which is the easiest surface to wipe clean. | 13 |
| Matte | A flat, dry-looking surface with no shine. It shows fingerprints less and marks more. | 11 |
| Geometric | A printed pattern under the glaze, repeated rather than reactive. | 6 |
| Marbled | Two glazes swirled before firing, so the pattern runs through rather than sitting on top. | 5 |
| Speckled | Iron speckles through a pale glaze, so the surface reads as stone rather than paint. | 3 |
257 of our 303 pieces state their glaze. The rest are glazed stoneware without a named finish.
Why the photograph and the piece are not identical
A photograph shows one firing of one glaze. On a reactive glaze the next firing draws its own line. That is the character people buy this range for, and it is also the honest reason to expect a difference. If you want two pieces that match closely, buy them as a set, because we fire a set together.
Glazing applies and fuses a thin, glass-like coating onto the surface of the clay to seal its pores.
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, read 14 August 2026.
What a glaze cannot do
Glaze is glass. It seals the body, it takes a wash, and it will scratch if you attack it with a metal pad. It does not make a piece unbreakable, and it does not like being taken from a fridge to a hot oven in one move. Everything else on our care page follows from those two facts.