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Behind the Design

Behind the Design: Our Rhodes Ceramics

Here at Pottery Barn, we take great pride in the artisan heritage behind many of our pieces. Our beautiful Rhodes ceramics are just one of many Pottery Barn collections that has a rich story behind it.

rhodes1Many of the items in our Rhodes ceramics collection, including our Ceramic Bottle Coaster and our Party Bucket and Wine Cooler, are made in Montelupo-Florence, Tuscany in Italy. Each handmade item in the collection is produced at Ceramiche I.M.A., a small company founded in 1978 by three close friends.

sku # 8798126 (11)Here, you can see our Rhodes Bottle Coaster carefully shaped on an expert artisan’s potter’s wheel. Ceramiche I.M.A. only uses hand made processes — no factory machines here! Each item is made with care until completion, even if it takes 10 hours of painting to finish (which some items do!).

rhodes4And here’s the final result: the beautifully finished and handmade Rhodes Bottle Coaster.

sku # 1758531 (13)All of the clay for the Rhodes collection is extracted from the shores of the nearby River Arno and then purified. In this shot, one of Ceramiche I.M.A.’s potters carefully shapes the details on our Rhodes Wine Cooler. Most of these artisan workers have at least 35 years of experience creating perfect pieces of pottery.

rhodes2This shot shows the completed wine cooler — beautiful! It takes about 20 days from start to finish to create a single piece — with a week in the drying kiln and two days of firing after dipping the pieces in glaze.

sku # 1758580 (9)In this shot, a potter puts the finishing touches on the Rhodes Party Bucket, making sure that each tiny detail looks perfect.

rhodes3Voila! The handwork on this piece makes it truly unique.

The process behind our Rhodes ceramics, and many other Pottery Barn pieces, takes a lot of time and hard work to complete, but the results are well worth it. Our Rhodes ceramics are each one-of-a-kind and made to last for generations.

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