The Drip Is the Firing: Why a Reactive Glaze Cannot Be Repeated Exactly

Reactive glazes are the one finish a factory cannot promise twice. The colour is not printed or sprayed on; it moves in the kiln, breaking thin over a ridge and pooling thick in a flute, and where it finally stops is decided by temperature and by how the piece sat in the stack. The Reactive Glaze Fluted Cup leans on that instead of fighting it: a scalloped wall for the glaze to run down, a pulled handle, and a foot wiped bare so the drip ends on clay and not on your table. Cobalt over black, or cream over chestnut.

Where a Run Glaze Goes Wrong

A run glaze fails in three ways, and all three are visible before packing. Over-fired, it travels past the foot and fuses the cup to the shelf, so every piece is turned over and checked at the foot ring and the ones that ran are pulled out. Under-fired, it stays flat and the ridges lose their break, which reads as a plain brown cup with a pattern printed badly on it. Pinholes are the third: gas trapped under a thick pool opens as a pinhead crater, usually inside the bowl where the glaze is deepest. Hand wash, because a dishwasher heat cycle is what dulls this surface over a year.

Sorting, Not Matching

No two pieces from a reactive firing are the same, so the work here is sorting rather than matching. Each batch is graded by how far the drip runs and how dark the pool reads, and a reorder is filled from the same grade as your sample rather than from the average of the kiln. A colourway that is not on the card starts as a trial firing and not as a colour number, because the result depends on the clay body and the firing curve as much as on the recipe. We quote the trial on its own.

"You can specify the glaze. You cannot specify where it stops."

Technical Breakdown for Procurement Managers

• Material: Stoneware body; reactive run glaze; bare wiped foot ring.
• Technique: Glaze breaks on the ridges and pools in the flutes during firing; handle pulled and applied by hand.
• Style: Scalloped tea or coffee cup; two colourways, cobalt over black and cream over chestnut.
• Safety: Food-contact glaze; hand wash; avoid thermal shock and dishwasher heat cycles.
• Structure: Single cup with loop handle; foot ring wiped clean before firing.
• Customization: Custom colourway quoted as a trial firing; own mark on the base.
• Lead Time: Trial firing for new colourways; sample service available.
• Logistics: Graded by drip depth and packed to grade; bulk export cartons.

Want This Cup in a Colourway of Your Own?

Send the reference you are working from, and we will quote a trial firing before any production run.