Commissioning custom tableware for a restaurant means working with a potter to design plates, bowls and serveware around your menu, your room and your service. Done well, the plate becomes part of the food. A guest notices the carved rim before the first bite, and remembers it after.
The process is simpler than most restaurateurs expect, but it does take planning. You need a clear count, a realistic timeline and honest answers about care in a working kitchen. Here is how it works at The Potter’s Hands Studio in Oxford, Mississippi, where April Dupuis makes hand-carved stoneware and sgraffito ceramics for interior designers, chefs and hospitality teams.
What a 450-piece service shows about scale
April’s largest commission to date was a 450-piece service created for a James Beard Foundation dinner. She was commissioned to make the pieces for the Memphis restaurant Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen.
The studio’s own takeaway is simple: a custom run can scale from a single cup to an entire table while staying entirely handmade. Whatever the size, the care per piece doesn’t change.
For a restaurateur, that is the useful part. Handmade does not have to mean a handful of showpieces. It can mean the plates in front of every guest at a full service. It does mean that each piece is thrown, carved, glazed and fired by hand, so the schedule has to make room for that.
How a restaurant commission works
The studio’s commission process follows the same three steps whether you need a set of serving platters or a full dinner service. The details are on the commissions page.
- Consult. A free conversation, in the studio or online, about what you have in mind, your timeline and your budget.
- Design. April sketches forms and carved motifs and shares a plan, so you know exactly what to expect before any clay is thrown.
- Create. Each piece is thrown, carved, glazed and fired by hand. You get a timeline up front and updates along the way.
For trade and hospitality clients, the written proposal includes sketches, glaze direction, timeline and pricing. A deposit reserves your place on the kiln schedule, and you receive progress photos at each stage.
Timelines
A typical commission through the Designer Trade Program runs 8 to 12 weeks, confirmed in writing before the deposit. Larger services are scoped per project, so expect the studio to talk through quantity and schedule together.
A few planning habits help:
- Work back from your date. If the tableware has to be in hand for an opening, a menu launch or a special dinner, start the conversation as early as you can.
- Leave room for approvals. Sign off on sketches and glaze direction quickly so the kiln schedule holds.
- Plan delivery. The studio ships nationwide, professionally packed and insured, and offers regional delivery support across Mississippi, Tennessee and the Memphis metro.
Working out quantities
The count is the part restaurateurs most often underestimate. Before the consultation, sit down with your chef and front-of-house lead and work through:
- Covers. How many guests you seat at once, and how many turns a night.
- Courses and pieces per cover. Which courses get custom pieces and which stay on house plates. Many restaurants commission one signature piece, such as a pasta bowl or a dessert plate, rather than every item.
- Dish pit rotation. How many of each piece need to be in service while others are being washed.
- Spares. Every restaurant breaks plates. Because no two handmade pieces are identical, ordering extra at the start is the easiest way to keep the table consistent later.
Bring those numbers to the consultation and the scope will come together much faster.
Food safety and care in a working kitchen
April’s functional stoneware is high-fired and finished with a food-safe glaze. Most of the studio’s tableware is safe for daily use, the microwave and the dishwasher. Pieces with gold or metallic accents should be hand-washed, which is worth weighing for anything that will go through a busy dish line.
For commercial work, care instructions and food-safety specs come with every piece, and placement and care documentation ships with every commercial commission. Glaze and clay-body documentation is available on request. Ask for it early and share it with your kitchen manager and anyone responsible for health inspections.
If your kitchen runs a high-temperature commercial dish machine, raise that in the consultation so the studio can advise on form, glaze and care. For a fuller look at stoneware in commercial use, see whether handmade stoneware is durable enough for commercial spaces.
Designing a set that looks like your restaurant
Within the sgraffito process, slip colors and glaze tones can be developed to complement your room. April’s carved motifs come from Southern gardens, including magnolia, dogwood, cotton blossom, camellia and lilies, and they can be matched in scale and placement across a service so the set reads as one family.
What can’t happen is exact replication. Every line is carved freehand. In a dining room, that small variation from plate to plate is what tells a guest the piece was made for this table. More on the technique is in what sgraffito is.
Questions people ask
How long does custom restaurant tableware take?
A typical commission runs 8 to 12 weeks, confirmed in writing before the deposit. Large services are scoped per project, so the timeline is set once quantities are known.
Is handmade tableware food safe?
April’s functional stoneware is high-fired and finished with a food-safe glaze. Food-safety specs come with every piece, and pieces with gold or metallic accents should be hand-washed.
Can the studio make a full dinner service?
Yes. The studio makes custom dinner and serving sets, and its largest commission to date was a 450-piece service for a James Beard Foundation dinner.
If you are planning a menu, an opening or a special dinner, start a commission and bring your counts to the first conversation.