Diego Sampere, the ceramist who designs crockery for chefs in La Bisbal d’Empordà and produces them by hand.

Diego Sampere (Barcelona, 1988) has a degree in Industrial Design from the Eina School of Design and a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Design from the IED. He defines himself as a ceramist and a lover of good food. These two passions are at the origin of his handmade pottery workshop. His workshop is located in a place with great ceramic tradition in La Bisbal d’Empordà, a village with a long history in ceramics.

Sampere designs and manufactures tableware for chefs from all over the world and for all those who value original, quality tableware, made with the care of a craftsman who loves his profession and is determined to make it known, which is why his ceramic workshop is always open, where you can see the entire production process, completely handmade.

His collections have a very Mediterranean inspiration. She uses technology and computers to design her prototypes, but also to look for new ways of sustainability: “... we always try to recycle during the whole production process in the workshop: from the incoming materials to the packaging…“.

Diego Sampere tells us about his manufacturing process

Preparation of the stoneware. For the manufacture of our tableware, we select top quality stoneware. We work with both liquid and solid stoneware, and the preparation process is different depending on the type of stoneware. For the liquid, we mix it with water until the ideal density is achieved.
For the solid stoneware, we pass it through an extruder to homogenise the body and eliminate air particles.

Moulding. Our ceramics are moulded in 2 different ways depending on the type of piece: through an automatic lathe called Steck or through casting moulds.
Most of the circular pieces are made through the Steck machine. On the other hand, all the pieces that do not have circular shapes, we manufacture them through casting moulds, made of plaster by ourselves, in another area of the workshop.

Polishing & sponging. When the stoneware has dried to a so-called “leather” state, we polish the excess stoneware from the edges by hand and smooth out the rough edges. This gives our pieces a smooth finish and also helps the glaze to adhere consistently.

Drying and first firing. Once the pieces have been polished, they must dry completely before being fired for the first time in the kiln. This drying process varies depending on the climate: in the summer months, the pieces can be dry in one day, while in the winter days they need several days.
Afterwards, we do a first firing, called bisque firing, at 1,000 ºC, to eliminate the residual humidity, harden the product, make it more porous and prepare it for the glazing phase.

Glazing. Once we take the pieces out of the sponge cake baking, they are ready to be glazed. We carefully dip each piece into the glaze and clean the bases with a sponge. Once the glaze is dry, we load the pieces back into the kiln for the final firing.

Glaze firing. We fire the ceramics in our gas kiln at a temperature of 1,260ºC (much higher than the bisque firing).
Firing at such a high temperature achieves a vitrified surface and results in unique and very resistant pieces.
Each piece of ceramic is in the kiln for a total of 48 hours, adding the time of the two firings.

Smoothing. Once the enamelled pieces are cold, we carry out a sanding process to remove any remaining roughness and ensure a perfect finish.

Quality control and packaging. Finally, when the ceramics are smooth and clean, we do quality control piece by piece and pack it for shipment. To achieve waste reduction, we reuse shredded cardboard boxes and other sustainable packaging materials to protect the orders in the packaging process.

Photography: Alejandro Moneo y Meritxell Arjalaguer

Project by Diego Sampere