It can be difficult to appreciate just what a handmade cat fountain is or why it matters. We assume we know what it means – made by hand – but what does that mean for a cat fountain?
Every process in making a ThirstyCat fountain is done with two hands; from preparing the clay for throwing, forming it on the wheel, trimming it, the creation of the centerpieces with all their ornamentation, making the glazes and applying them. This is all done manually, using high-fire ceramics, one fountain at a time.
As a comparison, almost all other ceramic cat fountains are slip-cast, by which low-fire liquid clay is poured into a mold where it dries, the mold is removed and there is the fountain bowl – or rather there are hundreds of them, all exactly alike.
Another method of making pottery, which we don’t use, is the Ram Press, in which a powerful hydraulic ram, presses the clay into a mold and a bowl is produced. They can make many in a short time that way. They call their bowls handmade. We would argue differently. With a Ram Press, every bowl is identical to every other, just like with the slip-cast method but with high-fire clay.
At ThirstyCats, skilled potters use the wheel and other hand-tools to turn a piece of clay into a beautiful and functional cat fountain that is as much an item of beauty for your home as a fountain for healthy cats, and no two are identical.
And as these images indicate, we throw every bowl and center piece base on a pottery wheel; an ancient and vital tool in the creation of pottery, and we sculpt and carve and glaze-paint every center piece. It is this process which permits the great variety of shapes, sizes and the detailing of our vessels and center pieces no ram-press could ever achieve.
Is the ram press bowl well made? Yes, it is absolutely a quality piece of pottery, in technical terms, albeit, one never touched by human hands in the making, having been given no individuality beyond the press, devoid of any character but what 2500 lbs. of pressure per square inch gives, never influenced by either the whim or plan of the potter – not something worked into being by skilled artisans.
And it is this process of working directly with the materials; the creation by skilled hands of individual works of ceramic fountains that makes ThirstyCat fountains truly unique. What you find at ThirstyCats you can find only at Thirstycats.
