The studio
Estudio Marea is a 4-person ceramics studio in A Coruña, on the Galician Atlantic coast. Sara founded it in 2020 after eight years at a larger Madrid studio. The output is small-batch stoneware tableware and one-off vessels, sold through a small set of independent boutiques in Spain, Portugal, France, and Mexico — plus a Saturday-only walk-in shop on the Rúa do Orzán.
Each release is a 6-month seasonal cycle. "Marea de invierno" (Winter Tide) is the studio's biggest release of the year, anchored to the autumn-into-winter palette of the Atlantic coast. Sara writes the brief in early April; production runs May through September; the boutiques get their allocations in October.
The bottleneck
Sara's clay had been arriving via a Barcelona distributor for three years. Reliable, but the markup on terra-blanca de Catalunya kaolin had crept past 35%, and the underglazes were worse — she was paying double for pigments that came from the same Catalan extractors the distributor was buying from. She'd talked to the extractors directly at a fair in Valencia in 2024 but couldn't get past the language gap — they spoke Catalan + Spanish, she spoke Galician + Spanish, but the technical specs (silica content, particle size, firing range) needed an interpreter she didn't have.
A friend on the Lisbon ceramics circuit had used BLUN · Listing for sourcing pigments out of Limoges and showed Sara the concierge interface. "You write your brief in Spanish, the concierge handles the technical Catalan + Castilian translation in real-time, the supplier replies in their language, you read in yours."
The 9 days
Brief sent — 6 Catalan kaolin extractors + 4 pigment workshops
Sara filtered the 47 ES results to 6 kaolin extractors (volume + purity) and 4 underglaze workshops (custom-blend capability). Concierge translated her ES brief into CA-flavored Catalan with the right ceramic terminology.
5 of 10 replies in
Cantera Bell-lloc (kaolin), Cerámicas Pirot (pigments), and 3 others responded same-day. Avg. supplier reply: 5.6 hours.
Test-tile pack ordered
Pirot offered to fire 12 test tiles — 5 base pigments × 2 dilutions + 2 surface variations — at their kiln before Sara committed. 38 € cost, ships in 6 days. "Esto no me lo había ofrecido nadie en cuatro años," she wrote.
Test tiles arrived
Sara fired her own tiles to confirm match at her cone-6 oxidation profile. 4 of 5 pigments matched her color-references on first try. The 5th (shell pink) needed adjustment — Pirot reformulated and sent 2 more test tiles overnight.
Negotiation
Cantera Bell-lloc quote: 120 €/100kg for white kaolin direct, vs distributor price of 185 €. Sara's offer: 6-month commit at 110 €, escrow + 30-day net. Bell-lloc: 115 € with bagging customization (12 × 100kg). Pirot: 5-pigment custom set at 240 € total (vs distributor 420 €).
Two POs signed
1.2 tonnes of terra-blanca kaolin from Bell-lloc + 5-pigment custom underglaze set from Pirot. Mangopay LU escrow. Both delivered within 21 days. The "Marea de invierno" production cycle started 6 days earlier than last year.
The 2 suppliers Sara onboarded
4th-generation kaolin extractor in inland Catalonia. Direct mining + screening on-site. 1.2 tonnes for Sara at 115 €/100kg, 6-month price-lock.
Specialty pigment workshop, Pantone-matched custom blends, fired test-tile validation included. 5-pigment custom set for 240 € total · 12-tile sample free for verified buyers.
"Llevaba tres años pagando a un distribuidor para que hablara catalán por mí. Con BLUN · Listing hablé directamente con la cantera y con el taller de pigmentos en mi propio idioma — el concierge tradujo en tiempo real, la calidad subió, el precio bajó un 35%, y por primera vez los proveedores me conocen por mi nombre. La temporada de invierno empieza seis días antes que el año pasado."SR Sara Rios, Founder · Estudio Marea 4-person ceramics studio · A Coruña · founded 2020
What's next for Estudio Marea
The "Marea de invierno" production cycle is in full swing — 700 pieces will leave A Coruña between September and December. With the 2,180 € saved on raw materials, Sara is now investing in a second wheel (another full studio member, Joel, joins in July) and exploring a small-format oxide-decoration sourcing brief from a workshop in Faenza, Italy — BLUN · Listing's ceramic-vertical concierge speaks fluent IT.
The unlock isn't just the price. It's that Bell-lloc and Pirot now know Sara's kiln profile, her seasonal cycle, and her cone-6 oxidation signature. They send her sample slips when something unusual comes through. "Es el tipo de relación que en este oficio se construía solo con visitas presenciales," she said. Now it builds in chat.