The Bloom Ring: a flower, a glaze, and the light of Lisbon

Each Bloom Ring begins as a small piece of raw clay, shaped by hand in my Lisbon studio. What happens between that first touch and the final glaze is the story I want to tell.

 

There is a particular kind of satisfaction in holding something you made with your hands. Not the clean, predictable satisfaction of a finished project, something rawer than that. The satisfaction of not knowing exactly what the kiln will give back.

That uncertainty is built into every Bloom Ring. The glaze moves during firing. The colours shift, deepen, surprise. What goes into the kiln as a muted sage might come out with hints of copper. What looked dark green might emerge almost black, with a shimmer I didn't plan.

"No two rings are identical. That is not a limitation, it is the whole point."

From clay to colour

Every ring starts the same way: a small slab of clay, pressed and shaped into five rounded petals. The form is simple, deliberately so. It is a flower you might draw as a child, archetypal, immediate, joyful. But what happens to that form in the kiln is anything but simple.

I work with a range of glazes, each with its own personality. Some are glossy and bold, like the deep Sparkling Blue or the vivid Volcano orange. Others are quieter: the muted Beige with its ghostly blue speckles, the earthy Bark that shifts between amber and copper in the light. The Silver glaze catches the light with an iridescent shimmer that photographs differently every time.

Made to be worn, not saved

I made these rings to be lived in. To be worn while holding a morning coffee, while eating shrimp by the water, while running for a bus.

The ceramic is surprisingly durable, fired at high temperature so it becomes dense and hard. The adjustable band means you can move it between fingers, share it, try different looks.

What strikes me most, watching people wear them, is how quickly the ring becomes theirs. It stops being a Jadeo piece and starts being their piece. The colour they chose, the finger they put it on, the way it catches the light when they gesture while talking.

The collection, this season

This spring I fired a new batch of colourways, some returning favourites, some new experiments. The Dark Green with its amber veining. The Bark, which looks like embers in the right light. The Silver, which is the most minimal and perhaps the most surprising of the collection.

Each colourway is made in a limited run. When they are gone, they are gone, until the next firing, which may produce something slightly different anyway.

That is the nature of handmade ceramics, and I have stopped trying to fight it.

"Lisbon light does something to these glazes that is very hard to reproduce anywhere else."

I photograph everything here, in the studio, in the streets, at the table. The light in Lisbon has a particular quality in spring, warm and direct, a little golden even at noon. It does something to these glazes that is very hard to reproduce anywhere else. I think that is worth keeping.

The Bloom Ring collection is available now on jadeostudio.com. Each piece handmade and one-of-a-kind.