Ceramics Care Guide

Caring For Your Jones & Co Products

Want to know how to care for bone china? Or perhaps you want to know how best to clean fine porcelain ceramics or earthenware ceramics? We want our products to last a lifetime and bring you joy for many years to come. Follow these tips for how to care for our bone china, ceramics, pottery and planting vessels.

How to Care for Bone China

Handle with care: bone china is strong porcelain that takes it strength from the bone ash component — but it is still breakable so please be gentle with it.
Let there be light: the high quality English clay mixture gives bone china its unmatched translucency. When lighting up votives, tea light holders or nightlights using real candles, it is important for you to remember that the vessel will get hot! Instead, we recommend using battery-powered lights to enjoy their beauty safely. Also, no messy wax — win win!
Food safety: only glazed bona china items are 100% food safe. We do not recommend using unglazed bone china items for the storage of food products.
Filling with water: like any ceramic, bone china vases hold water well, but not forever. When water remains inside the vessel for an extended period of time (four weeks or longer), unglazed items may become porous on the inside of the vessel and may cause the vessel to leak. Between display times its optimal to let the vessel dry completely before re-filling with water.
Clean with a light touch: to remove dirt and dust, apply a wet cloth with light pressure. If a cleaning liquid is used, make sure it is non-abrasive or corrosive bleach based. We use dish soap.
A special note for our bone china lamps: these are fitted by our manufacturer with a LED light and cord system that has been specially designed for us that is Australian Certified. We recommend keeping bone china lamps out of the reach of young children at all times. The LED light does not radiate heat, and therefore, the lamp does not get excessively hot. The LED light is designed to light up for the entire lifetime of the product (estimated to be 30,000 light hours). How cool is that? If you wish to extend this period, please contact the point of purchase to organise a new light cord system for you. We also sell this LED and light cord system as an independent product on our website please contact Customer Care if you have any problems locating one.

How to Care for Fine Porcelain Ceramics

Handle with care: as with all ceramics, our items are breakable. Gravity is the arch enemy of ceramics!
Food safety: our ceramic kitchen and tableware is food safe and can be used for the storage and consumption of delicious of food items. Please use for the intended purpose only.
Filling with water: ceramic vases and vessels hold water well, but not forever. When water remains inside the vessel for an extended period of time (four weeks or longer), the inside of the vessel may become porous and may cause the vessel to leak. Also this is pretty gross and slimy. To avoid watermarks on furniture or other surfaces we recommend placing a saucer or coaster underneath the vessel.
Scratching and staining: always place any ceramic item onto delicate surfaces with great care. When moving them from one spot to another, lift them, don’t pull or push them. This will avoid scratching delicate surfaces.
Although these items can be placed in the dishwasher and microwave, we prefer to encourage the use of hand washing, avoiding microwaves and ovens. As the interior temperatures of these appliances can vary (super hot and way harsh!) we suggest the gentle art of handwashing.

How to Care for Earthenware Ceramics

Handle with care: as with all ceramics, our items are breakable. Gravity is the arch enemy of ceramics!
Filling with water: ceramic vases and vessels hold water well, but not forever. Even when sealed on the interior, when water remains inside the vessel for an extended period of time (four weeks or longer), the inside of the vessel may become porous and may cause the vessel to leak. Also this is pretty gross and can cause mold on bisque clay. To avoid watermarks on furniture or other surfaces we recommend placing a saucer or coaster underneath the vessel. Between display times its optimal to let the vessel dry completely before re-filling with water.
Scratching and staining: always place any ceramic item onto delicate surfaces with great care. When moving them from one spot to another, lift them, don’t pull or push them. This will avoid scratching delicate surfaces.
Clean with a light touch: to remove dirt and dust, apply a wet cloth with light pressure, especially as most of our designs are hand-painted. If a cleaning liquid is used, make sure it is non-abrasive or corrosive bleach based. We use dish soap. Slimy and old flowers will stain any bisque surfaces so take care removing them.
The jute rope we use on hanging items will also perish if subjected to all the harsh elements Mother Nature throws at us. Better to display these items indoors to enjoy them forever.

How to Care for Pottery

Handle with care: as with all pottery, our items are breakable.
Filling with water: our pottery vases and vessels hold water well, but not forever. When water remains inside the vessel for an extended period of time (four weeks or longer), the inside of the vessel may become porous and may cause the vessel to leak. To avoid watermarks on furniture or any other surface, we recommend placing a saucer or coaster underneath the vessel.
Uniquely imperfect: all our pottery products are wheel-thrown and part of a small quantity of hand-made vases and vessels. There may only be 100 similar products ever produced. And no two items are the same! This means you accept (and, we hope, appreciate) when they come with a little imperfection or look slightly different from the photo on the website. It’s part of the item’s unique character.
Cracking up: the effect of “micro-cracks” on our glaze or finishing may be part of the design. Please appreciate this effect as it’s a feature of the ceramic glaze used.

How to Care for Planting Vessels

Filling with water: our planting vessels hold water well, but not forever. When water remains inside the vessel for an extended period of time (four weeks or longer), the inside of the vessel may become porous and may cause the vessel to leak. To avoid watermarks on furniture or any other surface, we recommend placing a saucer underneath the vessel.
Drainage holes and plugs: for some of our items we provide a drainage hole and supply a fitting plug. As our items are handmade, the hole size will vary from item to item, therefore we cannot guarantee the plug supplied will be 100% water-tight.
Fading of colours: when exposed to direct sunlight over an extended period of time, the colours of our planting vessels may fade. This is a normal effect that the sun has and is not related to the quality of the product. To appreciate your Jones & Co and cherish It forever, keep it indoors — our pieces are meant to live inside.
The jute rope we use on hanging items will also perish if subjected to all the harsh elements Mother Nature throws at us. Better to display these items indoors to enjoy them forever. When planting these beauties out, keep the soil under the rope line to prevent any deterioration.

A Note About Quality

We demand a high standard of quality for all our products, so, if an item is not in perfect condition, please get in touch with our customer service team on customercare@jonesandco.com.au. But first, we do ask that you read our Shipping & Returns information before contacting us.

Our Ethos: Craftsmanship and Sustainability

Everything we make is touched by hand. We believe in small runs made with the highest level of attention to detail. We give our makers creative freedom and collaborate with our factories to understand techniques and processes. The materials we use are typical to the regions we source from, including materials in abundance that are regenerated in sustainable ways. Some of the materials we use are by-products that would be discarded or destroyed otherwise. We work with local materials and factor their nature into our designs. We celebrate natural nuances and appreciate that each piece may not be identical which only adds to its beauty and charm.

For example, our bona china pieces are handmade in 20 laborious steps by craftsmen moulding a unique, high quality clay mixture. English clay and actual ground, sustainably sourced cow bone give pieces an unmatched translucency. Many pieces are tried in traditional ovens, hand-painted and glazed for a perfect matte finish.

The majority of Jones & Co products are designed by us in-house and sculpted by hand to produce a mould which the item is then cast from, poured, fired and then finished. Our pottery is hand-made by artisan craftspeople. They throw each piece of clay individually and shape each pot and vase in our pottery ranges. The labour-intensive pieces are fired in kilns, hand-painted and then glazed using time-honoured techniques combined with the latest designs to create truly gallery-worthy pieces. They are designed in-house, then produced in the Philippines or Vietnam by small family-owned factories, sometimes in limited runs of 100 or less.