Kashan Atelier

Kashan Atelier fires stonepaste ceramics in the city that gave its name to the Persian word for ceramics itself, working in minai — a seven-colour over-glaze enamel technique that predates oil painting and requires a second, lower-temperature firing to fix each enamel color without disturbing the others. The process is unforgiving: colors are applied after the first glaze firing, and a miscalculated second firing can ruin weeks of painting in a single kiln load, which is why the atelier keeps its output deliberately small. Its painters trained within a living minai lineage rather than a general ceramics program, and the figures and foliate patterns on each piece are drawn freehand rather than transferred. The atelier is based in Iran, and its ceramics reach ATG through a screened export partner who manages compliant shipping and customs into the EU.

Kashan Atelier keeps alive minai — a seven-colour over-glaze enamel technique that predates oil paint — on stonepaste fired in the city that gave ceramics its Persian name.

Kashan, Iran

The atelier risks weeks of painted work in a single second firing rather than simplify the seven-colour palette to make it safer.