Forge is a ceramics studio in San Diego.
Founded - 2024.
"I've been designing wedding tablescapes for years. Tables that seat 8, 16, and more. Plated dinners. Family-style. The plates are always the last thing thought about. Usually generic, white, scuffed rentals. When we plan the table, the plate is what holds the meal together. Visually and literally. It changes everything else. Forge is the tableware I wanted to see on the tables we spend so much time designing."
"Willa saw Forge before anyone else could. I believed in her before there was anything to show. She runs the design. I run the rest, with one exception: the Pho Bowl. Ramen has its bowl. Udon has its bowl. Pho never did. I grew up with it. Vietnamese food deserves the same backdrop."
"Dan and I met years ago at a med tech startup. When he came to me about Forge, I said yes immediately. I knew how we worked together. I believed in what he and Willa were building.
The proof showed up at their wedding. Guests kept picking up plates and asking where to buy them. A few skipped the asking entirely and took the plates home. A wedding dine-and-dash. Honestly, the best review you can get.
Forge is small-batch ceramics with serious quality, colors that work across any kitchen, and a real point of view about what belongs on a table. My job is to make sure every wholesale buyer feels that. In the work, and in how we show up."
Twelve pounds of opinions about everything and the loudest voice on every call.
Made by hand. In small batches. No molds. No hydraulic presses.
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 six glazes. 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 runs. The two businesses operate independently. They also operate together.
Couples planning weddings through Wild Heights register through Forge. Forge ceramics appear at Wild Heights weddings. Hospitality clients we serve through one find their way to the other. The connection is structural, not incidental.
If you found Forge through Wild Heights, welcome. If you found Wild Heights through Forge, the same.
