Whether you are from Manhattan, Boston or New England, the Buffalo Check Chowder Bowl is a great complement to your clam chowder.  It is one of the most collected Hartstone pattern.

Enjoy summer while sipping gazpacho from the Summer Garden Rib Bowl, its bright, vivid oranges and yellows wrap their way around and about the flower petals of Summer Garden as whimsical dragonflies make their way through nature’s light.

Dish up that favorite ice cream and serve the family! The Fruit Salad Mini Ruffle Bowl is great for ice cream or fruit salad.

The Cardinal Ruffled Bowl is new for the Holidays.  Place it on top of the coffee table and fill it with brightly wrapped candies to brighten your home.

The Hartstone Pottery presents a collection of patterns to choose from, made of vitrified stone, usually fired at temperatures above 2,100 Fahrenheit that makes stoneware dense, strong and non-porous.  Microwave, freezer, oven and dishwasher safe, the Hartstone Rib Bowls and Ruffle Bowls are available individually or in sets of 4.  All Hartstone products are hand crafted and hand painted at the Hartstone Pottery in Zanesville, Ohio. All body and glaze are lead and cadmium free.

Ceramic dinnerware (and ceramics in general) is usually divided into three common grades, and then subdivided within each grade.

The common grades of ceramic used for modern dinnerware and tableware are:

• Earthenware
• Stoneware
• Porcelain

Each grade of ceramic is distinguished by the quality and purity of the clay used to form the product and the firing temperature reached in the kiln to harden the product.

The U.S. customs department classifies ceramic tableware based on two tests:

• water absorption
• light translucency

Generally speaking, lower firing temperatures can be equated with less density, less resistance to water permeation, and less resistance to cracking and chipping. Practically speaking, both stoneware and porcelain are so dense and fired at high enough temperature (over 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit) that water permeation is not a problem, and both grades, being high-fired ceramics, are resistant to cracking and chipping.

A basic definition of Ceramic would be:
Ceramic – any of various hard material made by firing a non-metallic mineral, as clay.

Ceramics are dinnerware or objects that are made from baked clay. The production of ceramics involve mixing powdered clay, a tempering medium, and water to create a paste or slip. A paste combination could then be made into a desired form. Slip is more liquid in nature and would be poured into a mold to create the desired shape.

The clay shape is then dried. Surface treatments like decoration or glaze may then be applied. The clay shaped object is then fired, and achieves a level of vitrification, where the particles of the clay fuse together. The high temperature of the firing has the effect of changing the physical properties of the clay object. For example, clay when exposed to water will turn to mud. After firing, the ceramic stays solid when wet.

Ceramics are usually classified in two categories:

• The nature or materials of the paste or slip from which the ceramic is made
• The type or style of surface treatment

The ceramic industry (not the dinnerware industry) separates the materials classification into three categories:

• Earthenware
  • The softest
  • Least vitrified
• Stoneware
• Harder than Earthenware
• More vitrified than Earthenware
• Porcelain
  • The hardest
  • The most vitrified (i.e. most glass-like)

The discussion of surface treatments for ceramics will be covered in a future post.