The Tiny Ceramic Bowl

There's a specific kind of satisfaction that comes from solving a small, everyday problem. One that's been nagging at you for years but never quite urgent enough to do anything about. For me, it was my chain mail scrubber. I use it nearly every day, but I could never find the right place to keep it. 

My hunch was that others might feel the same. Customers sometimes ask why we don’t put a ring on on the scrubbers, something by which it could be hung.

The answer: any metal in a shape other than the chain mail links could easily scratch your seasoning. It’s also why we don’t include any Field branding on the scrubber (even though, I suppose it would be better for business). 

So then how best to store the scrubber and keep it within reach?

The Process

Brad sources his clay from a small family shop in the Housatonic River Valley. "It's important for me to know where the clay comes from, where the money is going," he told us. "There's a lot of really big clay companies that buy little clay companies up."

Every piece is hand-thrown with such precision that people assume it's machine-made. "Everything is measured pretty meticulously, to the point where a lot of people think that it's not a person making it," Brad says. "I'm thinking about how the hand fits in everything, how it goes on the table, if it gets chosen first out of your cabinet or not."

That's the goal—not to reach 100% uniformity, but to prove what skilled hands can do.

Brad fires his kiln the traditional way: by flame color, pressure, and sound. No digital controls. "I'm basing a lot of my decisions on flame length, flame color, pressure, sounds… really paying attention instead of just looking at a number on a digital thing," he explains. 

Brad’s craft comes from a lineage. He apprenticed under Mark Hewitt in North Carolina, who trained in England under Michael Pardo. "It's a legacy," Brad says simply. Skills passed down through generations, adapted and carried forward.

Made for Daily Use

What started as a chainmail holder has become the kitchen catchall I didn't know I needed. These little tiny bowls just migrate around finding new jobs. A place for my rings when I’m kneading dough, salt for the dining table, a ketchup bowl for my kids. 

In time for the holiday season, we made a very limited run of three colors: Redwood, Bluestone, and Bone. Each one hand-thrown, each one slightly different.  

Made to earn their place on your counter the same way our cookware does—one use at a time.