What happens when a tile company decides to make a faucet? You get a design brief that looks a little different. For years, we’ve championed the art of American manufacturing, but moving into decorative plumbing meant asking a critical question: how do we bring the tactile, human feel of handmade ceramic into a system built for water pressure and longevity?
The answer is Fireclay Bath. Our venture into a new product category is the culmination of that challenge—a relentless pursuit of blending the sculptural character of metal with the expressive nature of our own clay and glaze. This is the inside story of how we hired an industry veteran, developed revolutionary ceramic handles, and changed the faucet design game.
Bringing the Vision to Life
When we decided to expand into plumbing, we needed a partner who shared our same high standard for quality and intention. That partner was Avi Abel, who is now the Director of Fireclay Bath. Avi has spent most of his life in the plumbing world; he started by learning the craft from the ground up and later running his own company, working directly with designers and fabricators. He brings a deep understanding of what trade partners need and what it takes to make an outstanding product.
For Fireclay, this new category is about deepening our promise: to offer everything we can, thoughtfully and beautifully, from the hands that make it to the homes that live with it. Avi saw how Fireclay was bringing design and manufacturing together, and he realized we could bring a level of artistry and customization to plumbing that simply wasn't available anywhere else.
A Foundation of American Quality
The integrity, skill, and human touch of domestic manufacturing are the foundation of this collection's quality and durability. Every component of Fireclay Bath is made domestically and machined in solid brass. These are solid brass bodies, cast right here in the United States. This commitment means we avoid cheap shortcuts like plastic cores or zinc; instead, we build every product with weight, long-term serviceability, and lasting durability.
Because we manufacture everything in America, we can maintain reliable lead times and high quality standards—an essential for designers and homeowners working on a schedule.
Innovating with Metal and Clay
Our signature collection, Foundry, exemplifies how we’re making this new category our own. Foundry pairs sculptural metal with the expressive character of our industry-first, handcrafted ceramic knob handles. This offering gives designers real materiality, endless customization, and a completely new aesthetic language for bath fittings.
Designing a functional handle from clay required a deep love for the medium – and a return to the pottery wheel. Jamie Chappell, our VP of Brand and Product and a ceramicist herself, knew the handle needed to be sensory, sculptural, and a little unexpected.
Jamie threw several iterations of the original forms on her wheel at her home studio, creating test pieces and then bringing them in to the Innovation Lab at our Aromas Factory to see how the glazes would react. After much trial and error, the Pebble and Groove forms were finalized; we used 3D modeling to create molds that would test how the handles would assemble with the metal trim. The final step was translating the original hand-thrown design onto a ram press. This process maintains the unique character of the handmade form while ensuring consistency at scale.
We ended up with two ceramic knob handles, both first of their kind. Pebble, the original shape that Jamie started with, is a rounded, organic-inspired knob that invites touch. Our other ceramic knob, Groove, features a more structured silhouette that offers a simpler shape while still celebrating the material. See them both here.
When choosing glazes for the handles, we focused on a palette of 16 colors that honored the intrinsic qualities of each knob and finish: how it breaks over edges, pools in recesses, and brings out the depth of the form. Our 16 metal finish options, including luxe finishes like Architectural Copper and French Brass, were selected to offer a lived-in feel and are designed to mix and match with the ceramic. This combination unlocks customization without making the selection process complicated.
A Complete Resource for Designers
Fireclay Bath also includes three other distinctive collections: Flatiron, Contour, and Emerson. Whether you prefer the architectural lines of Flatiron, the flowing curves of Contour, or the more traditional forms of Emerson, every detail has been carefully considered.
The goal of Fireclay Bath is to give you a complete, flexible toolkit. With 4 distinct collections, 16 metal finishes, and 16 ceramic knob glazes, we offer a level of customization rarely seen in the category. The entire line, from lavatory faucets and showers to bath accessories, can be mixed across collections, inviting you to create truly personalized spaces.
We hope that what people feel when they see these collections is that the things we use every day should be the most beautiful and the most special. Expanding into Fireclay Bath is how we keep pushing forward—always with intention and always rooted in craftsmanship.
Explore the complete Fireclay Bath collection today, and book a free consultation here to discover the difference that heritage American craftsmanship and innovative design bring to your next project.
