Bare Stone History
In 2011 in the busy surf town of Santa Cruz, California, Bare Stone founder Lucy Alexander started taking pottery classes under George Dymesich. She began to hone her skills and passion for ceramic art. Eager to expand her time at the wheel, she successfully ran an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign in 2012 which provided the capital to build a small initial home studio. Moving to Toronto, Canada in 2013 she continued to build her studio and product line, launching Bare Stone pottery in 2015. In 2016, she moved her studio back to California to focus on her pottery full time in the beautiful mountain town of Idyllwild. There she owned and operated a successful pottery studio called Mountain Pottery, until her return to Northern California where she now lives.
How Bare Stone Pots Are Born
All Bare Stone pottery is hand thrown using local mid-fire clay on a pottery wheel and fired and processed in small batches in California. Each piece is made with as much care and attention to aesthetics as functionality. Whether its a mug for your morning coffee or a vase for a bouquet from your garden, Bare Stone pottery is made to bring a smile to your face. Great care is taken in the design and creation of these works to ensure the utmost durability and functionality of the wares.
After the pottery is thrown on the wheel it is set aside to dry into a brittle state called 'bone dry'. In this unfired state the pottery is called greenware. The dried greenware goes into the kiln for the initial low-temperature firing in the process called the bisque fire. In the bisque fire the pottery hardens to a porous state that is good for glazing. In this state the pottery is called bisqueware. The bisqueware is then glazed by pouring or dipping in our lead-free non-toxic glaze. Once pieces are glazed, the kiln is loaded again and the pottery is fired for the second time. In the glaze firing the pottery becomes fully vitrified making it impermeable to water. The resulting stoneware is sanded and inspected for quality.
Bare Stone pottery is a reflection of a passion for things that are handmade, homegrown, and local. We strongly believe in the cultivation of love and community through the sharing and enjoying of great food. The goal in bringing you quality handmade items is to inspire you to use them to share your home and your heart with the the people around you. Your pottery created to be surrounded by family dinners and community gatherings. We pride ourselves on maintaining this vision and hope you too will enjoy using our ceramics as much as we enjoyed making them!