Frequently Asked Questions

Every Petware Pottery bowl is handmade and hand-painted in our Denver, Colorado studio, right here in the USA. We source our clay locally from Rocky Mountain Clay, and the entire process—from forming and finishing to decorating, glazing, and firing—happens here in Colorado.

We make our bowls ourselves rather than importing finished products, so each piece is truly made close to home from start to finish.

Petware Pottery has been making ceramic bowls for pets since 1994. The company was originally founded in Grand Junction, Colorado, and over the years eventually made its way out of state to Idaho and then Wisconsin.

For more than three decades, Petware bowls have been sold through pet shops across the country, and you’ll still find them in many of the best independent pet stores throughout the USA. That history—and the relationships the brand has built with retailers over the years—is a big part of what makes Petware special.

When we took over the company, one of the things that felt especially meaningful was bringing Petware back home to Colorado. Today, every bowl is once again made here in our Denver studio, more than 30 years after the company first began on Colorado’s Western Slope.

We’re proud of where Petware has been, and even more excited about where we’re taking it next.

Petware Pottery bowls are made from high-quality ceramic clay, sourced locally from Rocky Mountain Clay here in Colorado. Each bowl is formed, dried, decorated, glazed, and fired in our Denver studio using lead-free, food-safe materials.

The result is a substantial, durable ceramic bowl with a smooth glazed surface that’s made for everyday use—and because each one is finished by hand, no two are ever exactly alike.

We love ceramic because it brings together function, comfort, durability, and design in one bowl.

Plastic bowls may be inexpensive and lightweight, but over time they can develop scratches, gouges, and worn surfaces that are harder to clean thoroughly and can be more prone to holding bacteria. And with growing concern about our everyday exposure to plastics and microplastics, some pet parents simply prefer to reduce the amount of plastic their pets eat and drink from. Microplastics have been detected in dogs, although researchers are still working to understand their sources and long-term health effects—so we wouldn’t claim that plastic bowls themselves are proven to cause harm.

Stainless steel is durable, sanitary, and certainly has its place, but it isn’t every pet’s favorite. Some dogs can be bothered by the clanging of tags against a metal bowl, and shiny, reflective surfaces can be distracting or unfamiliar to some animals. Metal also conducts temperature readily, meaning the bowl itself can become noticeably warmer or colder depending on its contents and surroundings.

Ceramic offers a different experience: a solid, substantial bowl that helps stay put at mealtime, a smooth glazed surface that’s easy to clean, and a material that doesn’t have the lightweight feel of plastic or the highly conductive feel of metal. And, of course, ceramic gives us something neither plastic nor stainless steel really can—the ability to create a bowl by hand with color, pattern, texture, and personality, so something your pet uses every day can also be something you love having in your home.

Our bowls are made with lead-free, food-safe materials and are dishwasher safe, making them as practical for everyday life as they are beautiful.

Petware Pottery bowls are made one at a time, not churned out by the thousands on an assembly line. Every bowl is formed, finished, decorated, glazed, fired, and inspected by hand in our Denver studio, so there are real people behind every piece that leaves our shop.

That hands-on process gives our bowls a weight, character, and individuality you simply don’t get from mass-produced pottery. Small variations in brushwork, glaze, and finish are part of what make each bowl unique rather than identical to the next.

We also think it matters to know where the things your pet eats and drinks from actually come from. Ceramic foodware sold in the U.S. is subject to safety limits for lead and cadmium whether it’s made here or imported, but with mass-produced imported pottery, it can be much harder for a customer to know exactly where the clay, glazes, and decorative materials came from or how the piece was produced. U.S. regulators have documented imported ceramicware that exceeded allowable levels of extractable lead and cadmium, which is one reason transparency and material sourcing matter.

At Petware Pottery, we know exactly what goes into our bowls because we make them ourselves. We source our clay locally from Rocky Mountain Clay and use lead-free, food-safe materials, giving us control over the process from raw clay to finished bowl.

And we design our bowls to do more than simply hold food or water. They’re substantial enough for everyday use, made to help stay put at mealtime, and created to look like something you’re genuinely happy to have sitting out in your home.

In short, you’re not just buying a pet bowl. You’re buying a handmade piece whose materials, craftsmanship, and origin you can actually know—and one that was made with your pet and your home in mind.

That extra weight is intentional. Our bowls are made from substantial ceramic with thicker walls and a more solid construction than many of the lightweight ceramic bowls you’ll find on the shelves at big-box stores. That gives them a sturdy, substantial feel and helps them stay put during mealtime instead of sliding or tipping as easily.

The added weight is especially helpful for enthusiastic eaters, larger dogs, and pets that tend to push their bowls around the floor. It also gives each bowl the kind of durability and presence you expect from something designed to be used every day.

A lot of mass-produced ceramic pet bowls are made as thin and light as possible to reduce material and shipping costs. We take the opposite approach. We want a Petware bowl to feel solid in your hands, stable on the floor, and built to be part of your pet’s daily routine for years—not something flimsy or disposable.

Because making a bowl by hand takes more time, skill, and hands-on work than producing one by the thousands.

A Petware Pottery bowl isn’t pulled off an assembly line by the thousands. Each one is formed, dried, finished, decorated, glazed, fired, inspected, and packed by hand in our Denver studio. That process takes time, skill, multiple firings, quality materials, and a whole lot of hands-on attention.

Mass-produced bowls are often designed around speed, volume, and keeping manufacturing costs as low as possible. We’re making something very different: a substantial ceramic piece that’s meant to be used every day, made with lead-free, food-safe materials, and finished with the kind of care you can see and feel.

You’re also supporting a small American business and a product that’s made locally rather than imported by the container load.

So yes, a handmade bowl costs more—but you’re paying for the materials, craftsmanship, durability, and time that go into making something thoughtfully, rather than simply making it as cheaply as possible.

Every Petware Pottery bowl goes through a surprisingly hands-on process before it ever reaches your pet.

We start with locally sourced clay from Rocky Mountain Clay. The clay is first pugged to make sure it has the right consistency, then portioned and pressed into shape using our RAM press. From there, each bowl is carefully finished by hand, cleaned up, and allowed to dry completely before its first firing.

After that first firing, each piece is decorated and hand-painted, glazed, and fired again at high temperature to create the smooth, durable finish you see on the finished bowl. Once it comes out of the kiln, we inspect it carefully and grind or smooth any rough spots that need a little extra finishing before it’s packed and sent on its way.

From raw clay to finished piece, every bowl passes through our hands again and again. It’s a slower process than mass production, but that’s exactly what gives each Petware bowl its character—and why no two are ever quite identical.

A handmade ceramic bowl takes weeks, not hours, because so much of the process depends on drying time and multiple kiln firings.

After the clay is pugged and pressed into shape on our RAM press, each bowl has to dry slowly and completely before it can go into the kiln for its first firing. Once it’s fired, we decorate and hand-paint it, apply glaze, and fire it a second time at high temperature. After that, every bowl is inspected and any rough spots are carefully ground or smoothed before it’s ready to pack.

The actual hands-on work happens in stages, but the waiting between those stages is just as important. Rushing the drying or firing process can lead to cracking, warping, or other problems, so we let the clay and kiln do what they need to do.

That’s why our Made to Order bowls typically take about 4–6 weeks from order to completion. It’s a slower way to make something, but it’s part of what makes handmade pottery handmade.

Because every Petware Pottery bowl is made and finished by hand, no two pieces will ever be perfectly identical—and we think that’s part of what makes them special.

Small differences in shape, glaze, color, brushwork, pattern placement, or surface texture can happen naturally throughout the process. Clay can shift slightly as it dries and fires, glazes can behave a little differently from one kiln firing to the next, and hand-painted details will always carry the touch of the person who made them.

These subtle variations are normal characteristics of handmade ceramics, not defects. They’re part of the reason your bowl feels like an individual piece rather than something produced by a machine.

It will look very close, but because every Petware Pottery bowl is handmade and hand-painted, there may be small differences from the piece shown online.

You might notice slight variations in glaze color, brushwork, pattern placement, shape, or finish, and colors can also look a little different depending on your screen. These subtle differences are a normal part of handmade ceramics and are part of what makes each bowl unique.

We do our best to photograph every design as accurately as possible, so the bowl you receive should feel unmistakably like the one you chose—just with a little character of its own.

We do our best to photograph our bowls as accurately as possible, but the color you see on your screen may vary slightly from the bowl you receive.

Different phones, monitors, and screen settings can display color differently, and ceramic glazes can also shift subtly from one kiln firing to the next. Because our bowls are handmade and hand-glazed, small variations in shade, depth, and finish are completely normal.

Your bowl should still look true to the color and design you selected, but those little variations are part of the character of handmade pottery.