Lore Ceramics Studio

10/19/2026

Butter deserves a little handmade luxury.

Join us at Lore Ceramics on November 7, 6–8 PM for a butter dish handbuilding class!

Spend a cozy evening shaping clay into something you can enjoy at your table every day. Add texture, play with details, and give your butter dish its own personality.

No pottery experience needed—we’ll guide you through the process. Come with a friend or settle in alongside some new faces for two hours of creativity and muddy hands.
434 Main Street, Metuchen, NJ
Reserve your spot through the link in our bio.

10/18/2026

Fire, smoke, feathers… and a bucket of fermented yeast? Welcome to our Raku workshop. 🔥

Unlike our usual firings, where pottery cools inside the kiln, these processes involve removing pieces while they’re still incredibly hot—and letting what happens next shape the finish.

Here are three techniques we explored:

🔥 GLAZED RAKU + REDUCTION
Glazed pieces are lifted from the kiln with tongs and placed into a metal reduction bucket containing combustible material. The heat ignites it, and covering the bucket limits oxygen. Depending on the glaze, this can produce metallic flashes and shifting colors, while smoke darkens exposed clay and highlights crackle lines.

🫧 OBVARA
A different process often explored alongside Raku, Obvara uses a fermented mixture of flour, yeast, sugar, and water. Hot, unglazed pottery is dipped into this brew, which scorches against the surface, creating toasted browns, smoky patches, and wonderfully unpredictable patterns. A dip in water stops the action and preserves the markings.

🪶 HORSEHAIR + FEATHERS
Horsehair and feathers are applied to the hot, unglazed surface, where they burn and leave carbon markings. Horsehair creates wandering black lines, while feathers leave soft, smoky impressions. No glaze needed—the burning materials create the decoration.

Temperature, timing, and placement all influence the results. We can guide the process, but we never have complete control—and that’s part of the excitement.

Thank you to everyone who joined us to experiment, learn, and share that moment of surprise when the finished surfaces were revealed. 🤎

Which finish would you try? Obvara is my favorite.
Thank you to Jersey Clay Society for hosting us!

10/16/2026

Your weekly time to unplug, get your hands muddy, and create alongside a welcoming community. 🤎

Registration is open for our Fall II semester which runs October 27–December 20!

Our eight-week pottery classes welcome beginners and experienced makers, with instruction in wheel throwing and handbuilding. Learn new skills, explore your ideas, and enjoy the simple pleasure of focusing on what’s in front of you.

$495 includes:
• Weekly three-hour classes
• A full personal shelf for your work
• Open studio access to practice between classes
• Use of studio tools and glazes
• No firing fees for standard-size work
• A complimentary 25 lb bag of clay for first-time students

Morning and evening options are available—see the schedule above!

Come with a friend or come on your own. There’s plenty of community to be found here.

📍 434 Main Street, Metuchen, NJ
🔗 Visit the link in our bio to register.

10/15/2026

Loading a bisque kiln is like a giant 3D game of Tetris.

If you love loading the dishwasher and are looking for something more high stakes, loading a bisque kiln might be for you.

It gives you anxiety to look at. It gives you anxiety to do it. And here’s why:

First, greenware—unfired clay—is incredibly delicate. Pieces can easily be scratched, chipped, cracked, or broken, so every move requires gentle hands. And don’t you even think of picking up that greenware mug by its handle.

Because this is their first firing and they don’t have glaze on them, pieces can touch! Suitable pieces can be nested inside each other, stacked, or even placed on their sides or rims. But support, weight, airflow, and the shape of each piece all matter. A delicate rim is not a load-bearing wall.

A loaded bisque kiln may look like we just threw everything in wherever it fits. But don’t be silly.

It was carefully placed. Wherever it fits. 😉

We bisque fire to Cone 04—yes, that zero is IMPORTANT! Cone 04 and Cone 4 are very different firings. Think roughly 1,900°F, with the exact temperature depending on the firing rate.

At this stage, our stoneware isn’t hot enough to soften the way it can during a hotter glaze firing. That gives us more flexibility with positioning, although careless stacking or poor support can still damage or distort a piece.

Our bisque firing takes about 12 hours, plus a few hours of preheat. That gentle start helps drive out residual moisture before it can turn to steam and cause cracking—or the dreaded kiln explosion. Pieces still need to be thoroughly dry before loading!

This is the firing that turns clay into ceramic. Once fired, there’s no going back: it can’t be slaked down and reclaimed into workable clay again.

So behind every kiln full of your creations is a very carefully planned puzzle—and someone holding their breath while placing that last bowl. 🤎

10/14/2026

We have new glazes coming!! And they need NAMES! Let’s see what you’ve got….

10/11/2026

It’s a rare moment that we’re open but the studio is completely empty. Enjoy this sleepy Sunday video tour of our studio ❤️☺️

09/29/2026

A little less scrolling. A little more creating. 🤎

Make time this fall to slow down, work with your hands, and connect with a creative community at Lore Ceramics.

Our eight-week classes offer space to focus on what’s in front of you, try something new, and get to know the people creating beside you. Whether it’s your first time touching clay or you’re returning to the wheel, there’s a place for you here.

🍂 Fall II Semester: October 27–December 20

$495 includes:
• Eight weeks of instruction
• A full personal shelf
• Access to open studio hours to practice between classes
• No firing fees for standard-size work

Registration opens:
• Continuing students: Saturday, October 3 at 8 AM
• New students: Saturday, October 10 at 8 AM

Morning classes: Thursday, Friday & Sunday, 10 AM–1 PM
Evening classes: Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, 6–9 PM

Set a reminder and join us for a season of muddy hands, new friendships, and time for yourself.

09/18/2026

09/09/2026

Raku Workshop available on our website now for Current students & members! Oct 17th 10-2! In collaboration with the Jersey Clay Society!

09/04/2026

Here it is! The official list of the glazes leaving. As some of you may know, we’ve been working on a glaze overhaul (and test tile wall) to streamline our glaze options. This has been going on behind the scenes since, pretty much Day 1. There are a few different reasons why a glaze may not have made the cut. Some of them are boring (PTR Blue) and we can do better. Some have been causing glaze defects, like running and bubbling. Others have materials whose prices have skyrocketed. Whatever the reason may be, we’ve been doing lots of testing to make sure all these new glazes work with all our different clays, the glazes that are staying and of course, layer beautifully with each other. As we use up the current buckets of the glazes that are leaving, we’ll replace them with our new ones over the next several weeks. We’ll also hold some contests for some fun new names for these glazes!