8 Years of REVIVAL ceramics

The Cylinder, 2nd Generation, in white. Shop The Cylinder →

Eight years ago, what started as a simple search for a well-designed planter quickly turned into an obsession with detail, function, and bringing great design back into everyday life.

We've always been drawn to a particular era of ceramics: the Gaineys, Architectural Pottery, and the studios that spent decades making planters where thoughtful design and function went hand in hand. We wanted to continue what they believed: that a well-made object is worth the care it takes to make it.

Our first planter was The Cylinder, available in White or Black. We showed up to our first trade show with samples, a container on the way and a lot more optimism than experience.

REVIVAL ceramics was the name on that first trade show booth, long before most people knew us as LBE Design. We've always loved what the word represented: bringing something back, but not simply recreating the past.

After the show we loaded up our car, walked into stores with our planters, and introduced ourselves one retailer at a time. We heard plenty of no's. But we also met people who took a chance on us, gave us shelf space, placed that first order, and helped turn a very small idea into a real business.

Our very first trade show booth. Read our Shop Spotlights →

A lot has changed since those early days. Our collection has grown, our products have evolved, and the business itself has been through a few different chapters. We've made mistakes, changed course, dealt with supply chain headaches and rising costs, and learned more about running a business than we ever expected to.

Some of the biggest lessons have come from the smallest details: how a product is engineered, how a glaze fires, how something is packaged, and how we show up for a customer when something doesn't go as planned.

We've never set out to be the biggest. We set out to make things well and build something people could trust.

This year, we found ourselves coming back to our roots in two ways: bringing REVIVAL ceramics back and introducing the second generation of The Cylinder. Streamlined, refined, and shaped by eight years of making, listening, and learning.

Four years ago, in the middle of growing the business, we moved from California to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Around that same time, we found an old artist's studio that we couldn't stop thinking about: Casa Slipper.

The same bug had caught us. We wanted to revive this incredible piece of design.

We've shared a bit of the renovation already, and like most things worth doing, it hasn't always been graceful. At one point during roof construction, rain poured in during an uncharacteristic storm. We spent an afternoon watching it dump straight into the kitchen, with buckets out and towels down, laughing because there wasn't much else to do.

It's been a much bigger undertaking than we anticipated, but seeing it come together has made every part of it worth it.

We've approached Casa Slipper much like we approach our products: preserving what makes it special, adding thoughtful details, using good materials, and making as much as we can ourselves. In many ways, it's the same reason we started LBE in the first place.

Casa Slipper, in renovation. Read more letters from Jon + Veronica →

We like making things. We like good materials. We like taking an idea and turning it into something real.

Eight years later, we still like doing it.

Most of all, we're grateful for the people who have shaped these eight years: the retailers who took a chance on us when we had almost nothing to show, the customers who came back and brought us along as their homes evolved, our manufacturing partners who've been with us from the beginning, and everyone who has ordered a planter or recommended us to a friend.

Eight years has gone by incredibly fast.

We're proud of what we've built, grateful for the people who've helped us get here, and still genuinely excited about making what's next.

Thank you for being part of it.

With appreciation,
Jon + Veronica Denne
Co-Founders, REVIVAL ceramics by LBE Design