General

How are your pieces made?

Everything you see in the shop is handmade by us in our community studio or at home in San Francisco! Generally speaking, there are a few distinct phases in the process spread out over 1-2 weeks, with potential failure points at each step.

1. Greenware

First, the piece is thrown, casted, and/or sculpted from wet clay. This is the delicate greenware stage. It can take anywhere from a day to a week (depending on the size of the piece and the type of clay) for it to dry to the right stage for any necessary trimming and attachments. After this, we apply underglazes for color details when required for the piece, and send it into the kiln for its first firing; this firing can take a couple days or longer depending on the kiln backlog and how dry the pieces are, and for the kiln to heat up and cool down.

2. Bisque

Now, the piece is in the bisque stage — less fragile than before, and ready for glazing! We first clean out any dust from the bisque-firing; this means either sponging it off or, if particularly dusty, giving them a bath and waiting a day or two for the piece to dry. We then touch up any underglaze as necessary before starting the glazing process. We use a combination of dipping glazes and brush-on glazes. It can take multiple different glazes and different layers of wax/vinyl resists to get the desired effect. Once this is done, the piece goes back to the kiln firing queue for another higher temperature firing to melt the glaze onto the piece and mature the clay.

3. Finishing

After this, the piece is mostly done! We go through a final quality control check to determine if there are cracks or other functional or cosmetic defects to price them accordingly. Sometimes we can try to fix these defects and send them through another firing. Otherwise, we sand the bottoms for smoothness and get it ready for sale.

4. Overglaze (optional)

In certain special cases, we apply another overglaze on top of the glazed piece — like real gold or mother of pearl luster. This necessitates a third firing in the kiln to bake those on.

Examples

Our critter mugs individually take anywhere from 3-6 hours to throw, trim, sculpt, and underglaze and then up to an hour to glaze and clean up the details.

Our smol friends individually take anywhere from 1-3 hours to cast, sculpt, and underglaze (much more in the case of our handpainted puffies!), and then up to 1-2 hours to glaze and clean up depending on the intricacy of the piece. We’re hoping to shave off some of that time by making better base shape molds, but those will also take time to develop and make!

Our smaller pixel cappuccino cups individually take about 45 minutes to throw, trim, and attach handles, and then up to 3 hours to meticulously hand-pixel each color and apply a liner glaze.

We're happy to answer any questions you have about any step of our process – just reach out to us in Instagram!

I missed out on an item! When will you make more?

Thank you so much for the interest! All the pieces you see are made by hand and we're always playing around with new ideas, so all items are by nature very limited and we can't guarantee that a particular design will be restocked in the future. Follow along on our Instagram (@horsehorsetigertiger.studio) for shop update announcements and sneak peeks into what we're working on next.

How do I care for my piece? What pieces are food safe?

All of our items described as drinkware ("cups", "tumblers", "mugs") and foodware ("plates") are food-safe. Some special notes (which are repeated on the product pages):

• Items with gold (either yellow or white) luster are not microwave-safe. This is because they contain real metal.
• Items with matte glazes may show cutlery marks and may stain if strong-colored foods or liquids are left in them for long periods of time (e.g. coffee, tea, chili oil). However, this does not impact their usability or safety.
• We recommend hand-washing all items for longevity, especially if they contain painted, unglazed elements like the marshmallows on our cereal cups or gold luster. 

Items described as "decorative" are not food-safe. This includes some of the items we describe as trinket dishes. This is because they contain strongly crackled glazes where food can get trapped. 

If you have any questions about particular products, please reach out to us on Instagram!

What materials do you use in your jewelry?

All our charms are made from fine porcelain and 14 karat gold-filled jewelry (14 karat gold bonded to a core of brass, or copper/zinc alloy).

What's gold-filled jewelry and how is it different from gold-plated or vermeil? What does this mean for care?

Gold-filled jewelry consists of a thick tube of gold pressure and heat bonded to brass. This layer of gold is thicker and more strongly bonded than you would find in electroplated gold-plated or vermeil jewelry, and is therefore hardier and more tarnish-resistant while still being more affordable than solid gold.

However, we still recommend that you avoid exposing your jewelry to any strong body products (e.g. acids, retinols) or going into the water with them!

Why 14 karat and not 18 karat or 24 karat for gold-fill?

Much of the jewelry online advertised as 18 or 24 karat gold-filled is mislabeled gold-plated jewelry – often intentionally by jewelry finding suppliers, and out of naivete by jewelry sellers who purchased from dishonest suppliers. They will often be much cheaper than 12 or 14 karat gold-filled, which is the industry standard in the US. As far as we are aware, there are no factories in the US who currently manufacture 18 karat or higher gold-filled jewelry, and any genuine pieces are rare and vintage.

Real gold-filled findings (aside from anything wire-made like the chain) will have a tiny stamp on it, e.g. 14/20 where the "14" refers to the karat weight of the gold, and the "20" indicates that the metal has been bonded with a minimum of 1/20 pure gold by weight.

 

Shipping & Handling

I placed an order! When are you shipping it out?

Please expect 2-4 business days processing for orders within the US, and 3-5 business days for international orders! We try our best to ship it out the day you get your shipping confirmation, but sometimes our postal carrier doesn't pick up our packages when they say they will, so there might be a small delay if we have to drop the package off ourselves :<

Where do you ship?

We're currently shipping to the US, Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore – if you live elsewhere, please reach out and we can see if we can make it happen!

Additional tax & import charges may apply to international orders outside of the US, and will be the responsibility of the recipient.

How will my order be packaged?

With a lot of love and care, of course – oh, and also with biodegradable and/or recycled packing materials. We generally use paper in lieu of bubble wrap, and our packing peanuts dissolve in running water. Any plastic packing material you might get in your package is reused from our own packages, and can be recycled with other plastic films at designated drop-off points in the US; check your local guidelines if you're outside of the States.

 

Refunds & Returns

Do you accept returns?

We do not accept returns at the moment; all purchases are final. We do our best to provide accurate pictures and descriptions of our items. Also, please keep in mind that since each item is handmade, even items of the same design will be sisters, not twins. 

What happens if my item arrives broken?

We haven't had any items break in transit yet (*knock on wood*) but in the unfortunate case that does happen, please reach out to us with a picture of the item and of the original packaging. We will do our best to remedy the situation.

What happens if my item goes missing in transit?

Unfortunately, once a package leaves our hands, it is the responsibility of the shipping carrier. Please ensure that you select a shipping address that is secure; we empathize strongly with things like package theft, but we unfortunately cannot be responsible for missing or stolen packages.