About Us
Hi, I'm Stephanie Jin, the founder and artist behind relique studios.
My journey began in Jingdezhen, an ancient porcelain town, where I spent years learning underglaze painting from masters who've practiced it their whole lives.
Back in Brooklyn, New York, I work with the same white clay, painting what delights me: winter crabs steamed and cracked at my family's table, market vegetables from upstate farms, and flowers cut from my family garden.
My work celebrates small rituals - the breakfast plate you reach for with morning coffee, the platter that comes out when friends stay for dinner - and the way certain objects can make an ordinary evening feel memorable.
Our process
Working with porcelain
All our dinnerware is made with Jingdezhen porcelain, the white clay first mined in China's Jiangxi province over a thousand years ago and prized ever since for its remarkable contradictions: hard once fired but buttery when thrown on the wheel, solid but translucent when thin, strong enough to last centuries yet delicate and refined. We slip-cast each piece in plaster molds that pull water from liquid clay until it holds a shape.
Our process
Underglaze painting
After the first firing, we paint. The technique is called fenshui, a watercolor method that requires working quickly, before the porous bisqueware absorbs the pigment and before the brush loses its flow. It takes years to master.
Our underglazes come from local minerals: cobalt for blue, iron for warm rust, copper for green. The second firing can take days. The kiln reaches temperatures high enough to turn clay to glass, to seal the painted surface under a clear non-toxic glaze. What emerges is porcelain: vitrified, luminous, ready for your table.
