From Clay to Object: How a Ceramic Vase Is Made at Durao Studio People ask me how ceramic vases are made. The honest answer is that how ceramic vases are made depends entirely on who is making them and how. A vase cast in a mold in a factory and a vase thrown on a […]
What Happens Inside a Kiln at 1200°C — The Science Behind Stoneware The stoneware firing temperature in my kiln is 1200°C. That number appears on every product page of this site, in every description of every piece I make. It is not decoration. It is the most important fact about how these objects exist. This
What Are Mineral Slips — And Why Fernando Doesn’t Use Commercial Glazes mineral slip ceramics have a surface unlike anything a commercial glaze can produce. I have never used a commercial glaze. Not because they don’t work — they do. Commercial glazes are reliable, consistent, and available in hundreds of colors and finishes. They are
Wheel-Thrown Pottery: What It Is and Why It Still Matters Wheel-thrown pottery is one of the oldest craft techniques still practiced exactly as it was invented. The wheel spins. The hands shape. The clay responds. What emerges is determined in real time — by pressure, by speed, by decisions made in seconds that can’t be
What Is High-Fire Stoneware — And Why It Makes Better Art High-fire stoneware is the material behind every piece at Durao Studio. Not because it’s the most common choice — it isn’t — but because it’s the most demanding one, and that demand produces something that lower-temperature ceramics simply cannot: permanence. This is a short