caring for handmade ceramics

Good stoneware is tougher than almost anything else in your kitchen; it will outlive the dishwasher washing it. Nearly every handmade piece that dies is killed by one of two things: a hard edge or a fast temperature change. Manage those and care is mostly the pleasant kind, which is to say use.

washing

• Vitrified stoneware is dishwasher safe on a gentle cycle. Load it so nothing rattles against metal or other pots; the rack collision, not the water, is the risk.
• Hand washing with a soft cloth keeps matte and satin glazes at their best; abrasive pads dull them over years.
• Never steel wool. It leaves grey pencil-like metal marks on unglazed clay and matte glaze, though if you already have them, they usually lift with bicarb paste.
• Earthenware and anything repaired or lustred: hand wash, always, as the food safety guide explains.

stains and marks

Tea and coffee shadow pale glazes over time; a paste of bicarb soda and warm water lifts most of it in a minute of gentle rubbing. Cutlery marks on matte surfaces (fine grey lines where metal dragged) polish out the same way. For deep tannin stains in crazed or unglazed surfaces, an hour's soak in diluted hydrogen peroxide is the potter's trick; rinse well and dry fully afterwards.

thermal shock, the real killer

Ceramic hates changing temperature quickly and unevenly. Fridge to hot oven, frozen dish under the grill, boiling water into a stone-cold winter mug: each is a crack rehearsal. The habits are easy: start oven dishes in a cold oven, warm winter mugs with a splash of hot tap water first, and let hot pieces cool on wood or cloth rather than cold stone benchtops. This is also why wood-fired and raku ware earns its toughness reputation differently; ask the maker what their body tolerates.

storage and stacking

Stack with felt, cork, or a folded paper towel between glazed surfaces; glaze on glaze eventually grinds tiny scratches. Hang mugs by handles only if the hooks are smooth. And use the good pieces daily rather than saving them: unused pottery gathers dust and guilt, and daily use is what handmade work is priced and fired for, a point the maker is firm about.

chips, breaks, and honourable repair

A chipped rim on stoneware can be softened with fine wet-and-dry paper and used happily for years. Clean breaks on loved pieces deserve kintsugi-style repair (modern food-adjacent epoxies with gold finish look the part; true urushi kintsugi is a specialist commission). A repaired piece retires to dry service and often becomes the most looked-at thing on the shelf. Some pieces are better with a gold seam.