Glazes · Mar 7, 2026

Reading a speckle

Pick up a speckled buff Dune mug and you'll see dark flecks scattered through the surface, some tiny, some the size of a pinhead with a soft halo. People sometimes ask if they are specks of dirt. They are part of the clay.

Our speckled stoneware has small granules of iron and manganese mixed into the body. In the heat of the kiln those granules melt and bleed up into the glaze sitting on top of them, leaving a dark spot. Where the glaze is thin, the speckle stays crisp. Where it pools thicker, the speckle softens and spreads.

That is why no two mugs from a run of twelve look the same, even when they were thrown the same day and dipped in the same bucket. The granules land wherever the wedging put them. Reduction firing, where the kiln is starved of oxygen near the top of the firing, makes them bloom a little darker.

Speckles are sealed under the glaze, so they are food-safe and don't wear off. They are also a small record of how the pot was made: throwing lines stretch them into streaks, and trimming exposes them at the foot.

If you want the most speckle, choose speckled buff. Fog white covers more of it and lets only the strongest spots through.