Project description
I will throw a custom butter dish or cheese dome directly on the wheel, built as two separate pieces — base tray and domed lid — that are fitted to each other by hand once both have been bisque fired. This is the part most factory dishes get wrong: a lid that rattles, sits crooked, or seals so tightly it cracks the rim. I center each piece fresh, then true up the gallery and the lid's inner lip with calipers, test-stacking them dry before glazing so the fit is confirmed twice, not guessed at once.
Clay body is a smooth stoneware, mid-fired to cone 5–6 for vitrification and chip resistance, so the dish can go straight into the fridge and back onto the table without thermal stress. If you would rather have a lighter, more porous piece for a European-style butter keeper (the kind that uses a water seal to keep butter fresh at room temperature), I can throw it in a stoneware body suited to that method and we will talk through the well depth together, since the water-seal groove has to be thrown accurately or it won't hold water at all.
Glaze is entirely your call: a matte white or oatmeal glaze for a quiet kitchen-shelf look, a glossy celadon or tenmoku for more shine and depth, or a two-tone treatment with an unglazed foot ring for contrast. Every glaze I use is tested food-safe and lead-free, applied to the interior and all food-contact surfaces without exception — I don't skip that step even on decorative-leaning pieces, because a butter dish always ends up holding food no matter how it's marketed.
Standard sizing holds a standard 4-ounce stick of butter or a small wedge of cheese (roughly 7–8 inches long, 4 inches wide), but I'm happy to throw a larger version for a full cheese wheel or a double-stick tray if you tell me the exact block size you're working around — send me the dimensions and I'll adjust the tray accordingly. A finger-friendly knob or pulled handle finishes the lid so it lifts cleanly without fumbling.
Timeline runs 12 to 18 days start to finish: throwing and trimming both pieces, a slow bisque firing, the fit-check and any final trimming of the lid gallery, glazing, and a glaze firing. I'll send photos of the bisque fit-check before glazing so you can flag anything before it's permanent, and again once the piece comes out of the final kiln.
Clay body is a smooth stoneware, mid-fired to cone 5–6 for vitrification and chip resistance, so the dish can go straight into the fridge and back onto the table without thermal stress. If you would rather have a lighter, more porous piece for a European-style butter keeper (the kind that uses a water seal to keep butter fresh at room temperature), I can throw it in a stoneware body suited to that method and we will talk through the well depth together, since the water-seal groove has to be thrown accurately or it won't hold water at all.
Glaze is entirely your call: a matte white or oatmeal glaze for a quiet kitchen-shelf look, a glossy celadon or tenmoku for more shine and depth, or a two-tone treatment with an unglazed foot ring for contrast. Every glaze I use is tested food-safe and lead-free, applied to the interior and all food-contact surfaces without exception — I don't skip that step even on decorative-leaning pieces, because a butter dish always ends up holding food no matter how it's marketed.
Standard sizing holds a standard 4-ounce stick of butter or a small wedge of cheese (roughly 7–8 inches long, 4 inches wide), but I'm happy to throw a larger version for a full cheese wheel or a double-stick tray if you tell me the exact block size you're working around — send me the dimensions and I'll adjust the tray accordingly. A finger-friendly knob or pulled handle finishes the lid so it lifts cleanly without fumbling.
Timeline runs 12 to 18 days start to finish: throwing and trimming both pieces, a slow bisque firing, the fit-check and any final trimming of the lid gallery, glazing, and a glaze firing. I'll send photos of the bisque fit-check before glazing so you can flag anything before it's permanent, and again once the piece comes out of the final kiln.
Other / Miscellaneous Cash, Bank transfer
