Born from Stone: The Story of Myth & Clay

Before Myth & Clay became a ceramic studio, it began as a question on the road to Tibet.

Our founder was travelling through a landscape filled with exposed rock, salt deposits and mineral-rich soil. Some of the stones looked pale and dusty under the sun. After rain, however, the same surfaces became darker, brighter and noticeably more vivid. Colors that had seemed hidden inside the stone suddenly came forward.

It was a small observation, but it stayed with him.

Could the color and texture of stone be brought into ceramic?

After returning to Jingdezhen, that question gradually became a studio. Myth & Clay was founded there in 2022, with a small team of ceramic makers and painters working together to explore what stone, clay, color and fire could become.

Finding Color Inside Stone

The first experiments were not about making a new pattern. They were about understanding the material itself.

Different stones and mineral materials were collected, ground, blended and tested at high temperatures. In their raw state, many of the powders looked ordinary. Some were grey, pale or almost like soil. Their real colors only appeared after firing.

The final result depended on many things: the mineral composition, the clay body, the temperature inside the kiln and even the position of the piece during firing. One material might develop into a deep blue, while another became red, brown, green or gold. Some created fine cracks, some produced a dry stone-like surface, and others developed a softer and more layered texture.

Over time, the studio built a working palette of dozens of mineral colors. There were many failed tests along the way, and there are still colors we are trying to understand more fully.

This process became the foundation of what we call mineral ceramics.

The surface is different from the smooth, glossy finish most people associate with porcelain. It can feel more like an old wall, a weathered rock face or a stone path after years of wind and rain. The texture is not added simply for decoration. It comes from mineral materials that are worked into the ceramic surface and changed by high-temperature firing.

One of the most noticeable qualities appears when the surface touches water. The color becomes temporarily deeper and more luminous, much like a grey stone road after rain. With continued use, tea, coffee, water and the natural oils from the hand may slowly give some pieces a softer and richer appearance.

For us, this change is part of the life of the object. The piece does not remain exactly as it was on the first day. It keeps a record of being held and used.

Why We Turned to Dunhuang

Once the studio began to understand the material, another question followed: what should we paint on it?

We kept returning to the murals of Dunhuang.

Dunhuang is often introduced through its celestial dancers and Buddhist imagery, but the murals contain far more than that. They record music, clothing, movement, animals, architecture, beliefs and ordinary life across different periods of Chinese history. In many ways, they are a visual record of how people once lived and how they imagined the world around them.

They are also fragile.

Even when a mural is carefully protected, its surface continues to age. Colors change. Details disappear. Time remains part of the work.

We knew that a ceramic cup could not preserve an entire mural, and we did not want to pretend that it could. What ceramic offered was something smaller and more personal: a way for a fragment of that visual world to continue in daily life.

Instead of printing a historical image onto a finished cup, our painters reinterpret the figures, animals, colors and movement by hand. A celestial dancer may be redrawn for a curved ceramic surface. A deer may appear beneath a moon or among clouds. A phoenix may circle the body of a cup rather than remain inside the borders of a mural.

The original image is a starting point, not a template.

This is why two pieces from the same series can feel related without being identical. They may share the same subject, but the brushwork, proportion, color and final firing result will always be slightly different.

The Stories We Paint

Many of the figures in our work come from stories that have been passed down for generations.

The celestial figures of Dunhuang are sometimes described simply as dancers, but they can also be understood as musicians, attendants and figures of blessing. They reflect how people once gave human movement a sense of the sacred, placing familiar singers and dancers into an imagined world between earth and sky.

The phoenix is often associated with rebirth and the determination to rise again after difficulty. The deer can carry ideas of kindness, purity and protection. In some stories, the nine-colored deer represents compassion and a good heart. Cranes are connected with long life, but in the context of old journeys they can also express the hope of returning home safely. Horses suggest movement, endurance and the courage to continue forward.

These meanings matter to us, but we do not believe every symbol should be reduced to one fixed explanation.

A deer may remind one person of protection, while another person simply responds to its quiet posture. A phoenix may represent renewal to one owner and strength to another. The same image changes depending on the person looking at it and the period of life they are going through.

We prefer to leave some space for that personal interpretation.

A Long Process for a Small Object

A finished cup may look simple when it is sitting on a table, but the making process is long.

The clay first has to be formed, trimmed and dried. The mineral texture is built onto the surface, followed by an early firing. Some pieces then receive another layer of texture and another firing before painting begins.

Painting may take place both before and after the preliminary firings. The piece is then glazed and fired again at a higher temperature. Some works go through as many as five firings before they are finished.

Our high-temperature firings generally fall between approximately 1240°C and 1290°C. At those temperatures, the glaze becomes ceramic and the mineral colors finally reveal themselves.

A relatively simple design may take several days to paint. More complicated figures, phoenixes and narrative scenes can take much longer because the artist has to consider the proportion of the figures, the balance of the composition and the relationship between several layers of color.

From the beginning of production to the finished object, a normal piece may take around three months. A particularly complex work may take much longer.

There is also no guarantee that a piece will survive until the end.

A cup may have already received days or weeks of drawing and painting, yet still crack, deform or change unexpectedly in the kiln. The longer the artist has worked on it, the more difficult that loss becomes.

This uncertainty is one of the reasons we cannot simply reproduce the same result whenever we wish. Even pieces painted together and fired in the same kiln may emerge with different colors and textures.

The artist makes the piece, but the kiln always has the final word.

Painted by Hand, Not Printed

Every image is painted by hand. We do not use printed transfers or decals.

This matters not only because of the brushwork, but also because many of our designs are built on raised and uneven mineral surfaces. The painter has to follow the shape of the cup and work with the roughness of the material. A flat printed image could not produce the same depth or physical texture.

You can often see small differences between pieces in the same series. A line may curve differently. The clouds may sit higher or lower. The expression of an animal may change slightly. The proportions of a hand-formed cup may also vary in small ways.

We do not treat these differences as mistakes. They are part of the process and part of the reason each piece needs to be photographed separately.

The piece shown on the product page is the exact piece its owner receives.

When People First Saw the Work

The first time we brought a larger group of pieces to a spring market, what stayed with us was not how many cups were sold, but the way people responded when they held them.

Some ran their fingers across the rough mineral surfaces. Others asked us to add a little water so they could watch the colors become deeper and more vivid. Many had seen hand-painted ceramics before, but few had encountered a surface that seemed to change as they touched and used it.

They wanted to know where the pigments came from, why the unfired colors looked so muted, and how stone could become part of a ceramic surface.

Those conversations helped us understand what people were really responding to. It was not only the image painted on the cup. It was the material itself—the sense that mineral, fire and time had left something visible behind.

That first response gave us the confidence to keep exploring the question that had started the studio: what can happen when stone and ceramic are brought together?

Made to Be Used

Although our work is inspired by murals, mythology and historical imagery, we make functional ceramics.

The cups are made for coffee, tea, water, milk and other everyday drinks. The plates can be used for desserts, food and coffee, or placed on display when they are not in use.

We do not want these images to become untouchable objects.

A celestial figure can sit beside someone’s morning coffee. A deer can be held between two hands. A phoenix can become part of an ordinary daily routine.

We recommend hand washing, especially for pieces with exposed mineral surfaces or hand-applied gold and silver. Gentle use helps protect the painted details and allows the outside surface to change naturally over time.

For us, daily use does not diminish the meaning of the work. It gives the work another life.

One Piece, One Owner

We sometimes return to the same subject or composition, but we cannot repeat a finished piece exactly.

The clay changes. The painter’s hand changes. The mineral mixture responds differently. The position and temperature inside the kiln change the final color again.

A series may continue, but every piece develops its own surface and personality.

Once a piece has been sold, that particular combination of clay, mineral, brushwork, heat and chance will not return to the studio.

It belongs to one owner.

Myth & Clay began with a journey, a group of stones and a question that did not have an obvious answer. Since 2022, we have continued trying to answer it through every piece we make.

Can the feeling of stone live in ceramic?

We believe it can.

And if an old image from Dunhuang can also become part of someone’s everyday life—held rather than only observed, used rather than kept at a distance—then perhaps a small part of that story can continue as well.

We do not think a cup can preserve an entire mural. But it can carry one image, one memory and one pair of hands a little further forward.

That is enough for us.