Pottery company Stoneware Pottery is more than 20 years old, and is one of Cagayan de Oro's best kept

secrets.CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines –Tucked along the coast of Barangay Bulua in the
western part of this city is one of Cagayan de Oro's best kept secrets.Many tourists don’t know about it,
but it's the go-to place for many coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, spas, and companies looking for
handmade mugs and cups, corporate giveaways, and collectible items.

Stoneware as many people know, is most prominent even in the ancient times particularly in
China.Stoneware Pottery Company was one of the companies who adapted the concept of
stoneware pottery merging the culture of Cagayan De Oro pottery making.It is based at
Bulua, Cagayan De Oro City.It was formerly owned and run by Clemens Wirth, a master
ceramic craftsman from Germany. He discovered that the earth pottery that Bulua is known
for can be enhanced to world-class standards.Stoneware Pottery, then known as Glema
Stoneware Ceramic Craft Limited Company, was founded in 1994 by Wirth and Manolo
Glema. Glema left the partnership in 2004 to start his own ceramic business, but it did not last
because of his health condition.Wirth ran the business with Germany-based Topferei Wirth
but also left in 2014, handing over the pottery to Rhodora Abella, the company’s longtime
corporate secretary.Stoneware is now a purely Filipino owned company after Wirth offered
Abella the opportunity to take the helm at a very “generous sale offer,” payable in terms that
Abella did not disclose. Some of the workers have been with the company for almost 20 years, like
Reynaldo Lomoljo. Others passed their skills to other family members like Fenie Glema, the younger
brother of Manolo.

The process of making stoneware products are almost identical to those that of the common process of pottery
making.The only differences are the type of clay used and the process is infused with technological
machineries like the usage of gigantic gas kilns and automatic potter’s wheel. The Stoneware pottery starts
with imported white clay from Germany. It is imported because clay from here and the one we use from
Germany has a different characteristic.The red earthen clay from Bulua which is being used for brick making,
plant pots, and garden decorative items is not suitable for ceramics.What are created here is porcelain. It
requires high ceramic skills and understanding of the qualities of the clay.The process starts with pounding the
blocks of clay "to remove all bubbles." if there are bubbles in the clay, these may cause air pockets inside
the clay that would make it prone to breakage.After the pounding, the clay is now ready for the
molding.The clay are hand-molded into different shapes and sizes or it may depend upon the customers
desired design. After being molded, the ceramics are dipped in glaze and then fired at 1200 degrees Celsius in
a gas kiln. The glaze will add a coat and shine to the final product. All glaze are food safe and free of lead or
other ingredients that might affect the health of our users. It may look quite easy watching the potters bent over
clay, their eyes focused as the wheel spins and the clay starts to take shape. But in reality, it’s back-breaking
work to create everything from scratch after the last one is finished.