When you buy a handcrafted piece from a ceramic studio, you are buying more than an object. You are buying hours of experimentation and error. You are buying moments of frustration and happiness. You are buying a piece of heart, piece of soul, and piece of someone else's life.
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Location
Our pottery studio is situated in the Front Range of Rocky Mountains tucked away from civilization and surrounded by nature. We are open for direct sales from our studio and love to give our customers a studio tour and provide an insight on how our ceramics are made.
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Inspiration
We find inspiration for our pottery in nature and love to use exposed clay surfaces, natural colors, and patterns created by heat during the firing process. We want our customers to stay connected with earth and appreciate the feel of clay, natural colors, and handmade work.
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Studio Production
The focus of our studio is a high-volume production pottery. All pieces are made by our hands, glazed, and fired in our studio. We strive to make all pieces as identical as possible and provide consistency in appearance yet leaving a room for footprint of the handmade process, our heart, and soul in each piece.
About Spinware
Spinware studio was founded in 2019 by Martina Pernicano with a goal to create ceramics that are more than just functional objects. Her collection features a wide range of unique and beautiful pieces that are perfect for elevating your dining experience or home decor.
Production
Clay is a very unique material. It starts as a solid unmoving substance but when you work with it and apply water, energy, and the heat, it becomes quite fluid and transforms into anything you can imagine.
Spinware Story
Martina's passion for ceramics started in her childhood, when she was walking the streets of Prague’s Old Town with her grandfather, visiting local artists and their studios. She was mesmerized by how a set of skillful hands can transform a piece of clay into something that was functional and beautiful at the same.
As years passed, Martina stayed attracted to ceramics but found herself more driven to nature which led her to earning a Ph.D. in applied and landscape ecology. She spent over 20 years working in environmental consulting specializing in protecting native habitats, threatened and endangered species, and exploring ceramics in her free time. It started slowly by watching educational videos, attending various workshops, and making ceramics for herself, friends, and family on the weekends.
In 2016, she had completed an apprenticeship with a master production potter, Bill van Gilder, and learned skills on how to make ceramics at high volume, as identical as possible, yet leaving room for a footprint of the handmade process.
At that same time, Martina started to face multiple health issues, including being diagnosed with cancer. She realized that she needed to start focusing on her well-being and remove unnecessary stress level from her life.
Martina incorporated her passion for nature into ceramics by choosing glaze colors from a natural palette while leaving some clay surfaces exposed to allow for a deeper connection between the user and the clay. She found making ceramics extremely peaceful and therapeutic, and in 2023 when her studio was generating enough income to support her living, she left the high pace environmental consulting industry.
She says: “The beauty of making ceramics is that it forces you to take time and slow down the nowadays high-paced lifestyle. Not only are there multiple steps to take (e.g., prepare clay, make pieces, trim excessive clay, attached handles, dry the pieces in controlled conditions, bisque fire, glaze, fire again, and polish the ceramics) but also, the process cannot be rushed without negatively impacting your work.”
When designing ceramics, Martina’s goal is to customize the product to be well-suited to the needs of the customer. For example, 12-14 oz mugs are what most customers are looking for, but a small growing segment of customers that identify as specialty coffee enthusiasts are shopping primarily for 8-10 oz mugs.
That said, maintaining product consistency is a challenge. Clay shrinks anywhere between 5 to 7 percent during each firing cycle, which equates up to 14 percent variation in the final size. This varies based on how much water the clay contains after it was mixed and what the final temperature in the kiln was during each firing. On the top of that, the pieces are handmade, so even though there are established measurements for each product, it is very easy to deviate and make a piece 1/8 of inch smaller or larger.
Another challenge with handmade ceramics is to maintain the inventory and at the same time, develop a new product. It takes on average about 3 weeks to complete a single piece from start to finish. The first ten days are usually dedicated to making the item, trimming the excessive clay, adding handles, sponging, and letting them slowly dry. Then, the pieces get bisque fired, glazed, and fired again. Each firing takes about 3 days from start to finish. To maintain the inventory, it requires careful planning and accurate tracking of produced pieces at the various stages.
Because at Spinware we like to incorporate exposed clay surfaces into our ceramics, we sand and polish each piece by hand with an emery cloth and organic coconut oil. It leaves a very smooth and velvety feel, making it a pleasure to hold, providing a close connection between you and the piece. This polishing process is very time-consuming, which might explain why some ceramicists prefer to glaze the whole piece, and those that leave some clay exposed, often do not put in the extra effort to soften the surface.
We want our ceramics to serve you well and impact how you feel every time you reach for and use them. We want you to feel the softness of the clay, be inspired by the beauty of the natural colors, appreciate the unique footprint of the firing in each piece, and develop a personal attachment to each piece. Afterall, they are not just objects. They are a product of our heart, soul, and time.
Production Process
- The clay goes through multiple stages of development. First, the clay is cut into small pieces of exact weight and gets kneaded by hand to remove air bubbles, align the clay particles, and distribute moisture. This process also makes the clay soft and warm and ready to be formed on the potter’s wheel into a desired shape. After the pieces are shaped, they rest for few days to become leather hard and then get trimmed and have handles attached. When this stage is completed, the pieces are left alone until air-dried and ready to be loaded for the first firing to bisque fire the clay.
- Our firing takes over 17 hours until the temperature in the kiln reaches bright orange color of 1,860 degrees Fahrenheit (F). After 24 hours of cooling, all pieces and unloaded, waxed, and glazed. All our glazes are lead free and food safe. Each piece is individually glazed with a dipping and pouring technique and loaded back to the kiln for the final glaze firing. During this time, the temperature is brought to over 2,215 degrees F and then slowly cooled down to 100 degrees F, when the kiln is opened and unloaded.
- We are inspired by nature surrounding our studio and choose glaze colors from a natural palette. By leaving the clay exposed (unglazed), we provide connection between the clay and the user. All exposed clay is polished to create a smooth and velvety feel for your hands and be gentle to your counter surfaces.
- When the clay and glaze are combined, the results are often unique. If a thin glaze is applied on a clay, you will see more of the clay and iron/manganese speckles penetrating through the glaze. This may cause the glaze to have a slightly darker or earthier tone. Firing process and heat buildup in the kiln can also influence the look of the final piece especially in areas where the clay is exposed. The clay may become darker and display an isolated or directional heat footprint.
- Even though we strive for perfection and making our pieces as similar as possible, they are handmade and vary slightly in sizes, shapes, glaze depth, and final clay fire color. It is what makes each piece having its own character, personality, and piece of our soul.
- All our ceramics are created with non-toxic, lead-free materials to be food safe and microwave and dishwasher friendly.