D
:
:
Use WELCOME10 at checkout on your first order, sets included.
WELCOME10
Before there were eight, there were a lot more buckets on the dipping bench in Águeda. A pink. A pale blue. Several yellows. A color had to survive three tests before it got a name, and most of them did not.
The three tests
- It has to fire true at 1,500F. Every piece is dipped and fired twice at that temperature, and a glaze that shifts between the bucket and the kiln is out. That rules out most reds. Rust is the one that held.
- It has to sit beside the other seven. Put it on a shelf with the rest of the library and none of them can look dirty. A lovely color on its own is no use if it makes Sage look gray.
- It has to look like itself on a curve and on a flat. The casserole shows a glaze on a curve. The plate shows every unevenness in the dip. The tray, the largest flat plane we make, shows it at full strength. It has to hold on all three.
Butter, third time
Butter failed twice. The first pass fired greenish in daylight, which for a yellow is the end of the conversation. The second went flat next to Chalk, so the two of them read as one color that had not made up its mind. The Butter in the library is the third attempt. It is on the casserole, the mug, the bowl and the tray, and it is one of the two we expected to sell least.
It did not sell least.
Why the bar is this high
The library is fixed. Nothing is added for a season and nothing is retired, so a glaze that got in is there for good. There is no ninth color coming, and no limited run of anything. A color that is only here for autumn is a color you cannot match next year.
That is what the three tests protect. A pan you buy in four years has to sit on the stove beside the one you buy today, which means every glaze had to be right the first time it went on sale, not the second. Saying no to the pink was easy. Saying no to the third yellow was not.
If you want to see all eight together, the casserole is the one shape made in every glaze. If you are in Águeda, the workshop shop on Rua da Fundição is open Thursday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm. The rest of the week the kiln is firing.
Eight is not a number we aimed for. It is how many passed.
Related posts
Everything made for heat goes in the oven to 465F, lid on or off. The one thing enamel dislikes is an empty pan on a high flame. A short guide to cooking without worrying.
Eight glazes in four pairs: Core, Earth, Field and Table. What each pair does in a kitchen, and which shapes each glaze comes in.
Most kitchenware asks you to buy into a color. We think you should start with what you cook. Four steps to choosing, in the right order.
Enamel is glass fused to steel, and glass breaks. What we can promise is what happens after the knock, and what we do if a piece arrives chipped.