how do we make our ceramics?
The GRITTY facts
Oh yes, the production process. From clay to plate, it’s a ride like none other. You might be sitting there, daydreaming, browsing through your phone, and up pops the thought “I wonder what steps go into making the unique high quality Badass Ceramics?”. We’ve all been there, so let’s take you through it.
There are two different processes depending on whether the tableware is wheel thrown or casted. Both processes require just as much craftsmanship and love.
Throwing what will become a STUBBY Tea Mug.
The process for the wheel turned ceramics goes a little bit like this:
Step 1. Kneading & Wedging
The raw clay is mixed up with watered down clay scraps to make it softer. Most of the time it’s made by hand, but sometimes a pugmill is used, especially when there is a lot of scrap clay to recycle. Recycling is one of our favorite things.
Step 2. Weighing
The clay is wire cut into smaller pieces and weighed to the desired weight so we can wheel-throw some of our signature BadAss pieces.
Step 3. THROwiNG
Each cup, plate and bowl is thrown into its own unique shape on the electric potter’s wheel. After our throwers have made magic happen the products are left to dry for 1-3 days.
Step 4. Trimming
When the clay has been left alone to rest for a while it turns leather hard. This is when the products make their way back to the potter’s wheel and get their bottoms trimmed. And hey, don’t you dare worry a single second, the left over clay trimmings are recycled and made into new products. After this the product has reached its desired shape and needs to dry for another week…
Step 5. 1st firing
Wow, a week has passed already! The goods are all dry and ready to go into the kiln for a 1st firing. Yeah, ceramics really love fire. The unglazed pieces go straight in the kiln to be bisque fired for about 2-3 days at the high temperature of 980℃, so they’re ready for some glaze goodness.
Step 6. Glazing
When the pieces have been successfully retrieved from the kiln they are wiped down to make sure there are no specks of dust to disturb the silky smooth glaze. The bisque fired ceramics are dipped in one of our many glazes. They then have to dry for a while before we take a final look at them and dry off any excess glaze from the bottom.
Step 7. 2nd firing
At last, we have finally reached the final step. Just kidding, there is one more. Since we don’t like our ceramics breaking they must go in the kiln one last time to become our durable signature BadAss Ceramics™. This takes about 2-3 days as well, and the products are fired at a temperature of 1248℃.
Step 8. Quality control
If everything went as planned two weeks have now passed and out comes a beautiful ceramic piece. To make sure we only send the best quality products to our customers we quality control every single piece that comes out of the kiln.
That’s it! The products are now ready to be packed, shipped and find their new homes.
The process may be long, but we know it is definitely worth it in the end.
The FLOW series being carefully casted.
The process for casted ceramics goes a little bit like this:
Step 1. Mixing
We want to produce the best casted ceramics. How do we do that you may ask? We mix liquid clay to perfection. The mix consists of four different powders (This is our secret potion) that are measured very… very… very… carefully to reach the perfect consistency for our ceramics. Then we leave the mixture to marinate for about 12 hours.
Step 2. Pouring
Once the perfect potion is mixed it’s time to pour it in our own handmade plaster forms. This is when the waiting game begins… Depending on how big the shape is the clay needs to dry between 10-30 minutes to reach the desired thickness of the product. When the alarm goes off the liquid clay that has not dried is poured out and re-used for another product.
Step 3. Polishing
Once the pouring is over the ceramics are transferred out of the forms and polished so they get that signature BadAss look we all love and know. Then we leave them to dry for a week… in conclusion the waiting game continues, ceramics are really needy before they have gone through the full process.
Step 5. 1st firing
Wow, a week has passed already! The goods are all dry and ready to go into the kiln for a 1st firing. Yeah, ceramics really love fire. The unglazed pieces go straight in the kiln to be bisque fired for about 2-3 days at the high temperature of 980℃, so they’re ready for some glaze goodness.
Step 6. Glazing
When the pieces have been successfully retrieved from the kiln they are wiped down to make sure there are no specks of dust to disturb the silky smooth glaze. The biscque fired ceramics are then dipped in one of our many glazes. They then have to dry for a while before we take a final look at them and dry off any excess glaze from the bottom.
Step 7. 2nd firing
At last, we have finally reached the final step. Just kidding, there is one more. Since we don’t like our ceramics breaking, they must go in the kiln one last time to become our durable signature BadAss Ceramics™. This takes about 2-3 days as well, and the products are fired at a temperature of 1248℃. Hot ceramics incoming!
Step 8. Quality control
If everything went as planned two weeks have now passed and out comes a beautiful ceramic piece. To make sure we only send the best quality products to our customers we control every single piece that comes out of the kiln.
