Christmas

The Christmas collection is made in summer. Stoneware has to dry, be fired twice, painted, and fired again, so the penguins and gift-box mugs that arrive in December were thrown while the kiln room was too hot to stand in. It is a small seasonal run, and once a piece sells it is not remade.

What is in the collection

Hand-painted Christmas mugs make up most of it — penguins, winterberries, holly, snow globes, gift boxes and small festive scenes painted freehand onto white stoneware. Around them sit candle holders, ceramic ornaments, trinket dishes, fridge magnets and a few pieces built for the table rather than the tree.

If you are looking for a handmade Christmas mug, a ceramic holiday ornament or a festive pottery gift that is not printed in a factory, this is the collection to browse.

Painted, not printed

Every motif is drawn by hand with underglaze directly onto raw clay. There are no transfers or decals, which is why one penguin looks faintly more surprised than the next and no two holly sprigs sit at quite the same angle.

Some pieces carry 24K gold lustre on the rim or in the detailing, applied after the main firing and set in a third, cooler one. On a Christmas piece the gold does most of the work that glitter usually does, without any of it coming off in the wash.

Stoneware and the 1200°C firing

These are stoneware rather than earthenware: fired hotter, denser and far less porous, which is what makes a holiday mug that survives being used every winter instead of once. Each piece is bisque fired, glazed and fired again to 1200°C, where glaze and clay fuse into a single hard surface.

The glazes are food safe. Plain pieces are microwave safe; pieces with gold detailing are not, because metallic lustre reacts in a microwave on anyone's ceramics.

Ordering in time for Christmas

Because nothing is mass produced, the collection thins out as December approaches rather than being restocked. Ordering earlier gives you both a wider choice and a comfortable shipping window — international parcels can slow noticeably in the last two weeks before the holiday.

As a rough guide, parcels from Türkiye reach most destinations within one to two weeks, and customs handling can add to that. Working backwards from the date you need it, ordering by late November is comfortable; December is a gamble that depends on where you live.

Every order leaves the atelier gift-wrapped, so a piece can go straight under a tree without further wrapping, and you can add a note at checkout.

Caring for a piece you only use once a year

Wash with warm water and a soft sponge; avoid abrasive scourers, which dull any glaze over time. Store ornaments and candle holders wrapped in tissue rather than stacked against each other — glazed surfaces scratch glazed surfaces.

Let a cold piece come to room temperature before pouring anything hot into it. Thermal shock is what cracks handmade ceramics; a mug brought straight in from a cold cupboard and filled with boiling water is the classic way to lose one, and it happens most often in December.

With candle holders, use a tealight or a candle that sits fully inside the holder, keep it on a heatproof surface, and never leave a burning candle unattended.

Sizes

Capacity and dimensions appear on each product page in millilitres and centimetres, shown in fluid ounces and inches for visitors in the US. As each piece is thrown by hand, read them as close approximations. Christmas mugs generally hold between 300 and 450 ml, and ornaments are sized to hang without weighing down a branch.

Made in Kütahya

Everything is shaped, painted and fired in a small atelier in Kütahya, western Türkiye — a town that has been making ceramics for roughly six centuries. Orders are packed by hand and ship worldwide.