Studio No. 4 · Thu–Sat

Stoneware planters,
made a shelf at a time.

Thrown, glazed and fired here. Every pot is the only one like it — browse what's ready now, or ask us about the next firing.

Shop the shelf

Studio shelves crowded with finished stoneware — vases, bowls and a raku-glazed jar.

On the shelf

Six pieces, ready to ship. Each one photographed as it actually is — when it sells, it's gone until the next firing.

A variegated snake plant in a terracotta pot.

Ash Column + Snake Plant

A tall cylinder under a wood-ash glaze that runs thick and pools at the foot. Snake plants tolerate low light and irregular watering.

$58

Studio favourite

A monstera plant in a white ceramic pot.

Celadon Belly + Monstera

Round-bellied, glazed the pale green of pond ice and darker where it gathers in the throwing rings. Bright light, back from the glass.

$72

A trailing pothos plant on a sunlit windowsill.

Cobalt Dip + Pothos

Dipped to the waist in cobalt, bare clay below the line. Pothos trails over the rim within a season.

$54

A hand-thrown bowl with a green and blue glaze running down its inside wall.

Speckle Bowl + Fern

Low and wide, freckled where iron in the clay burns through the glaze. Planted with a maidenhair fern.

$46

A tall dark, glossy glazed ceramic vessel.

Tenmoku Tall + String of Hearts

Iron-black in the belly, breaking to rust at the rim where the glaze thins over the edge. Wants a high shelf to trail from.

$64

Ask in the chat

An assortment of unglazed and finished ceramic vessels on a studio shelf.

The seconds shelf

Pots that warped, crawled at the rim, or came out a colour we hadn't planned. Watertight and sound. Ask what's on it this week.

from $24

Ten things worth knowing

Half about the pot, half about the plant. Swipe through.

Check the weight, not the calendar

Lift the pot after watering, then again a few days later. You'll learn what dry feels like faster than any schedule.

Stoneware holds water longer

Far less porous than terracotta. Whatever rhythm you used for a plastic nursery pot, stretch it.

Drainage is not optional

Every planter we make is drilled before bisque. No hole? Plant into a liner you can lift out.

Never leave it standing in water

Empty the saucer twenty minutes after watering. Roots need air as much as water.

Go up one size only

A small plant in a big pot sits in wet compost and rots. Repot when roots reach the hole, usually every second spring.

A white bloom is just your tap

Mineral salt, not mould. Wipe with vinegar on a cloth and rinse.

No dishwasher

Detergent soaks into the unglazed foot and stays there. Warm water and a brush is enough.

These can live outside

Fired to 1260°C, the clay absorbs almost no water, so it won't split in a freeze.

Crazing isn't a crack

Fine lines in the glaze, not the clay. Harmless on a planter; we keep it off anything you'd drink from.

Bright but indirect

A metre back from a south window, or right against a north one. Direct summer sun through glass scorches a monstera.

How it's made

Thrown, dried, bisqued to 1000°C, glazed, then fired to 1260°C in a small gas kiln in the yard — about eleven days from a lump of clay to something you can plant into, most of it spent waiting.

The colour comes from the second firing. Around 1000°C we close the damper and starve the flame of oxygen, and it starts pulling oxygen out of the glazes instead. The same iron that fires a muddy honey in clean air turns pond-green in a starved one — celadon only exists because of this.

A handmade stoneware mug with dark green brushed glaze, on a matching saucer.

Celadon: A trace of iron fired in reduction. Pale green where it pools, almost clear over an edge.
Cobalt: Deep blue, used sparingly — the raw oxide costs more than the clay it's dipped onto.
Wood ash: Sieved from the stove next door, so no two batches match. Runs when it goes on thick.
Tenmoku: Iron loaded to saturation. Black in the belly, breaking to rust wherever it thins over a rim.

Latest firing (118): the best celadon we've pulled from that kiln — pale, even, glassy. Three pieces crazed a week later, so the recipe gets a touch more silica before the next run.

How to order

No basket — there's never more than one of anything. Ordering happens in the chat, bottom right.

Tell us what caught your eye. A name from the shelf, or describe the corner it has to live in.
We photograph the actual pot. Not the listing — the one you'd receive, from three sides.
We hold it for two days. No deposit. Change your mind, it goes back on the shelf.
Payment by link. Card or e-transfer, Canadian dollars, tax added by province.
Packing. Pot and plant travel separately inside one carton. The plant is watered the morning it ships, never the night before.
Shipping. Anywhere in Canada, two to five days. Plants leave Monday to Wednesday, with a heat pack November through March.

Lead times

On the shelf: two or three days. Commissions: six to eight weeks.

If it arrives broken

Photograph it in the box before unpacking further, send it in the chat. Remake or refund, your choice.

Commissions

A matched pair or a particular size is straightforward. Matching a paint chip isn't — reactive glazes don't take instruction.

The plant half

Everything we sell is potted up here in a free-draining mix — two parts peat-free compost, one part bark, one part perlite — and spends a fortnight on the greenhouse bench before it ships. Most of the day-to-day is in the tips above. Two things worth adding:

The first fortnight

A plant that's just moved house often drops a leaf or two. Keep it out of direct sun, water once, and leave it alone.

Feeding

April to September, half-strength liquid feed every third watering. Nothing over winter — a plant that isn't growing can't use it.

Visit

The door is open Thursday to Saturday. Come and handle things — pots photograph badly, and weight and balance are half of what you're buying.

Where

Unit 4, The Kiln Yard
Off Nettle Lane

When

Thu–Sat, 10–5
Firing Saturdays, so expect noise

Ask

Repotting help, glaze questions,
"will this survive my apartment?"

Anything else

Are they food safe?

The celadon, cobalt and tenmoku are food safe and fired to full vitrification. The wood ash isn't — it's unpredictable, so we keep it to planters and vases.

Why is one pot $46 and another $72?

Time on the wheel and how many survive. A tall cylinder is harder to throw, and the ones that make it carry the cost of the ones that didn't.

Do you teach?

Two seats at the wheel on the last Saturday of the month, three hours, clay and firing included. Ask in the chat for the next date.

What happens to the failures?

Anything sound goes on the seconds shelf. Anything cracked is broken up and used as drainage in the next batch of planters.