We only fire the kiln twice a month. Here is why.

A full kiln uses the same gas as a half-empty one, cracks fewer pots and gives the glazes the long, slow cool they need. It also means your mug might take three weeks. This is the honest version of that trade.

On the first and third Thursday of each month, Tom lights the kiln at six in the morning and nobody opens it again until Saturday lunchtime. In between, every shelf is full. That rule is the single biggest reason our pots look the way they do.

We used to fire whenever we had enough for a kiln. That sounds sensible, but “enough” drifted. By the end of our first year we were firing half-loads every week because someone had promised a wedding set for Friday.

A kiln takes nearly the same gas to reach 1,260°C whether it holds forty pots or two hundred. Pack it full and each pot costs about 38p to fire. Fire it half empty and that goes over a pound, before counting the pots that crack.

Mass is the other half of it. A full kiln holds its heat, so it cools over thirty hours instead of twelve. Our celadons and the speckled oatmeal glaze only develop properly on that long cool; fired light, they come out glassy and flat.

Anything made to order joins the next firing with space, which is usually one to three weeks away. We put the date on your order confirmation, and if a kiln fails we write to you the same day rather than letting the date slip quietly.