Who we work with, and how that shows up in the pieces

Most of our commissions come through people who already handle our work: a shop owner who needs a repeatable glaze, a roaster who wants cups that survive a full service, a gallery that asks for a material sheet before it hangs anything. These are the partners whose names we can put next to ours.

Retail partner

Woodstock design shop

Stocked our brushed brass pendants across three sizes since the first run. They reorder against the same millimetre sheet we send with every unit, which keeps the shelf consistent.

Café commission

Observatory coffee bar

Ordered the 24-piece Woodstock tableware set in white stoneware. Two years of daily washing later, they still ask for the same matte bone glaze and unglazed rim.

Gallery partner

Cape Town ceramics gallery

Shows our naturally dyed textiles twice a year. They require colour swatches from each dye bath, so we keep the acacia and madder reference cards on file.

Interior studio

Sea Point interiors practice

Specified our reclaimed timber benches for a restaurant fit-out. We supplied grain samples and load notes before they signed off on the seating plan.

Product photography

Natural-light photo team

Shoots every collection in the workshop courtyard. Same three photographers since the start, which is why the process photos and the final catalogue look like one body of work.

Material supplier

Local clay and glaze source

Our white stoneware and brass stock comes from one supplier we have used for years. Consistent batches matter more to us than a wider catalogue.

Why the workshop keeps its own records

Anyone can show a finished bowl. We show the kiln log, the glaze test tiles, the wall thickness in millimetres and the batch notes from the dye pot. That paper trail is the reason a café in Observatory trusts us with 24 pieces and a gallery in Woodstock trusts us with a single commission.

Every piece has a spec sheet

Diameter, height, wall thickness and firing temperature are recorded before a piece leaves the bench. If a second order needs to match the first, we work from those numbers, not from memory.

Process photos, not stock shots

The wheel, the drying shelf, the brass being brushed by hand. Our product photographer shoots in the same room where the work is made, so what you see is the actual batch, not a stand-in.

Small runs, stated limits

Natural dyes shift tone between batches and reclaimed timber varies in grain. We say so up front, keep a colour reference on file, and tell you when a material simply cannot be repeated.

What separates us from a catalogue supplier

A factory can repeat a shape a thousand times. We repeat a shape as far as the material allows, and we document where it drifts. For a design shop or a gallery, that difference matters: you get provenance, not just product. Commissions are handled directly with the maker, so questions about a glaze recipe or a brass finish reach the person who mixed it.

How we verify before we ship

  • Glaze test tiles fired alongside the production batch.
  • Weight and balance checked on every lamp and vessel.
  • Dye baths logged with fibre, mordant and soak time.
  • Reclaimed timber inspected for cracks before milling.

Want the full method behind these checks? See how we run a commission from first sketch to packed crate on the solutions page, or write to us at info@shoppario.com to book a workshop visit in Woodstock.

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