Savi

Savi Start an order
Savi

Thrown by hand for your menu.

Stoneware for restaurants, made to order in a six-wheel Helsinki studio. Evening classes at the same wheels.

Start an order Evening classes

It starts as a lump of clay.

Grey stoneware, wedged by hand to push the air out. Off centre, a lump this size would tear itself apart at speed.

Clay on the wheel
770 g
Water in throwing clay
about 20%

Centred, then opened to the floor.

The clay is coned up and pressed down until it runs true, then opened, leaving a floor thick enough to trim.

Wheel speed for centring
about 200 rpm
Floor left for trimming
11 mm

Three pulls, then the curve.

Each pull thins the wall and lifts it into a cylinder. A rib then opens the cylinder into the bowl in one slow pass.

Wall after the last pull
6 mm
Wheel speed for pulling
about 90 rpm

Trimmed leather-hard, upside down.

A day later the bowl is firm enough to turn over. We cut the foot ring and take off the clay the pull could not reach.

Clay trimmed away
about 95 g
Drying before the kiln
about 7 days

Fired to 1,285 °C in reduction.

A bisque firing at 950 °C, a dip in celadon, then twelve hours in the gas kiln. The cones tell us when the heat is right.

Cone 10 down, cone 11 starting to bend

Out of the kiln, twelve percent smaller.

The celadon pools green in the throwing lines and breaks brown on the lip, where iron in the clay shows through.

Shrinkage, wet to fired
about 12%
Water absorption
under 1%

Tableware for a full service

Three pieces thrown to one set of measures, so they stack on the pass and in the dish rack. Pick a glaze to see them in it.

Glaze
A dinner plate, a deep bowl and a cup in celadon.

  • Dinner plate

    Ø 273 mm, 29 mm high

    €36 each, from 60 pieces

  • Deep bowl

    Ø 172 mm, 59 mm high, 670 ml

    €32 each, from 60 pieces

  • Cup

    Ø 82 mm, 77 mm high, 240 ml

    €24 each, from 60 pieces

Start an order The glaze you picked goes with you.

Six wheels and one gas kiln.

Two potters and a part-time glazer in a former print shop in Kallio. Everything we sell has been on one of our wheels and through our kiln.

Pieces a month
about 1,400
Restaurants we make for
23
Firings a month
8

Start an order

Tell us your covers and when you open. We reply within two working days with a quote and a sample piece in your glaze.

  • Ten to twelve weeks from the sample to your door.
  • From 60 pieces, mixed as you like.
  • Ten percent spares for breakage, at no cost.
Pieces for each cover
Glaze

That is 132 pieces with spares, about 3 kiln firings.

Evening classes at the same wheels

Six people, six wheels, one potter. You throw from the first evening and take home whatever survives the kiln.

Your first cylinder will lean. Ours did too.
Class

Questions

Is it safe in a commercial dishwasher?

Yes. It is fired to 1,285 °C and absorbs under 1% water, so it goes through commercial dishwashers and warming ovens. Keep it away from a grill or an open flame.

Can we order replacements later?

We keep your pieces and glaze on file and throw replacements in the next firing, usually within four weeks. A glaze shifts a little from firing to firing, as it should.

Do you make shapes of your own?

From 120 pieces. We start from a drawing and a sample, and you hold the prototype before we throw the run.

Do I need experience for a class?

No. The six Tuesdays start from centring. Bring clothes you do not mind getting muddy; aprons and tools are ours.