About Us
Purekiln makes one thing: white porcelain from Dehua, Fujian. Not a lifestyle range, not a hundred SKUs refreshed every season. Five pieces, made in the town that has been firing this exact material since the Ming dynasty, sold directly to people in the US who want the real thing without the gallery markup.
Why Dehua
Most “white ceramic” sold online is earthenware with a white glaze sprayed over a porous body. It looks similar in a product photo. It is not the same object.
Dehua clay is unusually low in iron and rich in potassium feldspar, which is why the fired body reads as warm ivory rather than the cold blue-white of factory ceramic, and why it holds a faint translucency at the rim. European collectors named it Blanc de Chine in the 18th century because they had no equivalent word — Meissen and Delft spent decades trying to reverse-engineer it and never quite matched the warmth.
That geology has not moved. The kilns are still there, and the people who know how to throw this clay still live within a few kilometres of them.
Five centuries of the same clay, the same town, and largely the same hands. We did not invent anything — we just shortened the distance between that kiln and your shelf.
How a piece is actually made
1. Thrown, not slip-cast at scale
Each form is thrown or hand-finished individually. This is why the five vases in a set are close but never identical, and why the wall thickness feels considered rather than uniform. If you want perfect repetition, buy a machine-made object — it will be cheaper and it will feel like one.
2. Fired to 1300°C
That number is the whole argument. At 1300°C the body vitrifies — the clay particles fuse into a glass-tight structure right through the wall, not just at the surface. A vitrified vase does not absorb water, does not stain from flower stems, does not craze along the rim, and survives a dishwasher indefinitely. Earthenware fired at 1000°C cannot do any of that; it relies on a glaze layer, and the day that layer chips, the piece starts drinking.
3. Hand-painted under the glaze, when painted at all
The cobalt lotus motif on our tea ware is brushed on before the glaze firing, so the blue sits beneath a layer of glass. Run a finger over it — you feel glaze, not ink. Decal-printed ceramics fade in a dishwasher within a year. Underglaze cobalt is chemically finished; it does not move again.
4. Finished by hand at the base
Foot rings are left unglazed and sanded flat, the way a potter finishes a piece for their own shelf. It is a two-minute step that most factories skip, and it is the difference between an object that sits silently on walnut and one that scratches it.
The long version, with photographs, is in From Dehua to Your Home.
What we will not do
A short list, because it explains the range better than a mission statement would.
- No seasonal colours. We make white, and one cobalt motif. A piece you buy in 2026 will still match a piece you buy in 2031.
- No decals printed to look hand-painted. If it is painted, a person painted it.
- No lead, no cadmium. Third-party lab tested. Everything we sell is safe for food and tea straight out of the box.
- No plastic in the parcel. Unbleached recycled kraft, die-cut foam cradle per piece, paper tape. More in Sustainability.
- No manufactured urgency. No countdown timers, no fake stock counters, no “17 people are viewing this”. You do not need to be rushed into buying a vase.
How we are set up
Purekiln is a US-registered brand working directly with kilns in Dehua. There is no importer, no distributor, and no wholesale tier taking a cut between the person who threw the piece and the person who unpacks it. That is the entire reason an 11-inch hand-thrown porcelain vase can be $29.99 here and $120 in a design store.
Orders ship from a US fulfillment partner, so domestic delivery is 3–7 business days rather than three weeks from overseas. Free over $50.
The guarantees, in plain language
- Arrives broken? Send a photo. We ship a replacement free and you keep the pieces — no return, no forms.
- Changed your mind? 30 days, unused, original packaging.
- Something unclear? Email support@purekiln.com. A person answers, usually within one business day.
Where to start
If you have never handled Dehua porcelain, start with the 11″ vase — it is the piece that makes the material obvious in daylight. If you are buying for someone else, the gift guide sorts everything by occasion and budget. If you want to understand the material first, read how to tell porcelain from stoneware before you spend anything — including with us.
Questions, wholesale enquiries or press: get in touch.