tableware designed and made inSan Diego
Founded by Willa and Dan in 2024.
"The plate is almost always the last decision made on a table, and it's the one that holds everything together, visually and literally. It sits at the center of every place setting. It's the thing every guest touches. It's the frame for the food. You can't set a table without a plate."
Willa
Co-founder of FORGE.
Founder and lead planner of Wild Heights Events.
Dan makes sure the things Willa imagines actually arrive at your table. His background is in operations, from planning to delivery, and he runs the side of FORGE you don't see: production schedules, maker partnerships, and every detail between a first sketch and a finished plate.
Dan
Co-founder of FORGE.
Head of operations.
Abbey leads wholesale and outreach at FORGE, working directly with buyers from first conversation through every reorder. She and Dan first worked together at a med tech startup, so when he told her about FORGE, she said yes immediately.
The proof came at Willa and Dan's wedding, where guests kept picking up the plates and asking where to buy them. A few skipped the asking and took them home.
Now her job is to make sure every wholesale partner feels what those guests did: small-batch tableware with serious quality, colors that work in any kitchen, and a real point of view about what belongs on a table.
Abbey Brinkey
Wholesale Account Manager.
Walter is a miniature dachshund and the most present member of the FORGE team. He attends every meeting, supervises every meal, and has never once missed a delivery at the door. His view of the table is from well below it, which makes him our leading authority on what falls off a plate. He believes every meal is worth showing up for, and on that point the whole team agrees.
Walter
Head of Morale.
Made by hand. In small batches.
Forge ceramics are made by hand in San Diego. No molds. No hydraulic presses. No automation. Every piece is shaped, glazed, and finished by hand. The slow way.
Most tableware on shelves today is made by machine. Slip-cast. Stamped out under hydraulic pressure. Faster, cheaper, identical. Forge is none of those things. Every piece is fired at cone 5/6 in gas reduction kilns. Dense, vitrified, restaurant-grade. No two are identical. The variation is the point.
Pieces are made on order. Four to five weeks, start to finish. The line comes in four glazes and two speckled clay bodies. Sage is currently sold out. We will bring it back when we can.
The line is small by choice. Three product families. A few special pieces. The studio is always exploring. New forms. New glazes. New ideas. Most don't make the line. The ones that do earn it.
Forge and Wild Heights share a table.
Wild Heights Events is the wedding planning company Willa has run for a decade. One plans the celebration. The other sets the table for all the days after.
They're separate businesses that keep ending up at the same table. Forge pieces turn up at Wild Heights weddings. And the hospitality clients we meet through one tend to find their way to the other.
However you found us, welcome.
Visit Wild Heights →
Editorial, intimate, design-led wedding planning. Founded and run by Willa.
Two inboxes
Order questions, shipping, returns, care, custom registries, contract work, press, and direct studio communication. The default inbox for almost everything.
dan@forgestudio.usWholesale, hospitality programs, and bulk orders. Abbey Brinkey, Account Manager.
abigail@forgestudio.us