SaphirKeramik is a new ceramic material, recently developed by the traditional Swiss company Laufen. It is notable for its extreme stability and hardness. The hardness of the substance results from the admixture of the mineral corundum. Colourless in its pure form, this inspired the name given to the new potter’s earth ceramic – one variety of corundum is sapphire. Thanks to its outstanding hardness and resistance to bending, the material opens up completely new design possibilities even when traditional production processes are retained. It can be used to create delicate, thin-walled forms and narrow radii of a kind impossible to realise in ceramics before. Whereas edge radii of 7–9 mm were formerly regarded as state-of-the-art, now minimum values of 2–3 mm are technically feasible. And the use of SaphirKeramik offers yet more benefits: it is lightweight in view of the reduced material deposition, which means the economical use of energy and raw materials in production and for that matter in transport.