What's in a name?

When we decided to start a company together, Jeremy and I, we had all the ideas for what we’d make, and how, and why, but what to call ourselves was a real sticking point. For months we were nameless - ‘Brown’ (our surname) had been taken a thousand times over, but ultimately we wanted to find a single word that would somehow sum up what we were creating and where we were in the world. Something that we hoped could become a byword for quality - for things made properly. So not too much to ask from a lone word then.  

We’d recently moved to Dartmoor - indeed, it was only having this time and space - both literally and metaphorically - that we were able to even consider starting our own business. And then it struck us - Feldspar! Feldspar is one of the key minerals that make up granite, and living on the moor we were surrounded by granite every day: the house we lived in had thick granite walls and from there we’d walk up onto the moor - made up entirely of granite, bogs and bracken, to perch on our favourite granite sofa with a view (pictured above, doing just that). Feldpsar is used in ceramics too - in a nutshell, Feldspar is what gives them their strength. 

Not only this, but it makes up the majority of the earth’s crust - 60% - and has been found on the moon and in some meteorites, yet unless you’re a geologist (or a potter), it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard of it. This was what we especially liked. We never wanted our brand to be showy, we wanted the product to speak for itself. Just like the mineral: strong and useful but not shouting about it, just quietly getting on with business.

So we settled on ‘Feldspar’ for our company crafting useful things properly. We added the studio part just to denote the fact that we were making things rather than a mining company, but we mostly just use the Feldspar bit - a single word that denotes strength, longevity and is relatively unheard of. It’s perfect. And also, Feldspar takes millions of years to form. A little like our mugs…