An older woman serving out of the cream KILN Casserole into cream KILN bowls being held up to her across a crowded table of six, everyone mid-reach and talking over each other. Daytime, hard sun through the window, no candles lit.

Why the library is fixed

KILN began with a casserole that outlived its color. Ten years on, the pan was fine, but the range it came from had been discontinued twice and nothing new would sit beside it.

So we did it the other way around. One workshop in Águeda presses, dips and fires every piece, in eight glazes chosen to sit together. The library does not change, which means the shape you add later always matches the one you bought first.

Dipped, then fired twice

Every piece is dipped in glaze and fired twice at about 1,500F. The second firing is what keeps the edge of a chip blunt instead of flaking outward.

Eight glazes, no seasons

Chalk, Ink, Ochre, Rust, Sage, Sea, Butter and Damson, in four families of two. Nothing is added for a season and nothing is retired.

Nothing to baby

Steel and glass, both recyclable, and repairable rather than replaceable. Use it on the stove, in the oven and, now and then, on a windy headland.
One workshop

Every piece is pressed, dipped and fired in one workshop in Águeda, in central Portugal. One place means one standard, and every plate is checked before anything leaves.

A chip stays a chip

Enamel is glass, so a hard knock will mark it. The body is a single pressing with no seams for rust to travel along, so a chip stays the size of the knock. If a piece arrives chipped, we send a new one.

Use it every day

Plates, bowls and mugs go in the dishwasher. The pans go in the oven to 465F, lid on or off. The one thing enamel dislikes is an empty pan on a high flame.
Someone reaching into a cupboard for a stack of cream KILN bowls, the plates stacked beside them, cupboard door swung open. Daytime, hard sun, no candles lit.
It all begins with

the shape

Every piece starts as a flat sheet of steel, 0.8mm for tableware and up to 1.2mm for the pans that go in the oven, pressed into shape in a single pass.

Then comes

the glaze

A glaze only joins the library if it fires true, sits beside the other seven without making any of them look dirty, and looks like itself on a curve and on a flat. Most colors we tried did not make it.

Where it is made

One workshop in Águeda, in central Portugal, presses, dips and fires every piece. The workshop shop is open Thursday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, and closed the rest of the week while the kiln is firing.

The steel

Low-carbon steel: 0.8mm for plates, bowls and mugs, 1.0mm for the saucepan, kettle and pitcher, and 1.2mm for the casserole, the frying pan and the roasting pan. Thicker steel holds heat longer and keeps its shape in a hot oven.

The glaze

Vitreous enamel: powdered glass and pigment, fused to the steel in the kiln. The color is glass all the way through, not a paint, so it does not fade or peel.

The check

Plates are checked first, because a flat surface shows any unevenness in the dip before anything else does. A piece that does not pass does not leave the workshop.