Jonathan Castro

Johnathan Castro Designs

Jonathan Castro’s practice unfolds at the crossroads of tradition and contemporary sensation. A Midwest-trained ceramicist who relocated to New York in 2007, Castro has spent over a decade and a half shaping clay into objects that feel carved from memory and time. His work begins with a reverence for traditional Japanese pottery, translated through a modern vocabulary that favors clean lines, restrained geometry, and a quiet, kinetic energy. His functional pieces are grounded in utility, yet every form carries a tactile lyric—the ribbing that invites the hand to linger, the surfaces that catch light and shadow with a disciplined grace—while his sculptural works drift toward underwater flora and fauna, conjuring motion and depth in ceramic and glaze. Cast as much by place as by process, the Jonathan Castro Design studio in New York has become a space where craft is a living dialogue between material and muse, where texture is not merely seen but felt, and where life in clay becomes a refined language of presence. 

This sense of crafted intimacy extends beyond his studio walls into a curated collaboration with Nest Studio hardware, a pairing that elevates everyday hardware into handmade sculpture. The Glaze line of cabinet knobs and pulls is a study in contrast and tactility: ceramic pieces bearing Castro’s signature ribbed surface meet satin brass backplates in an oversized, dramatic articulation of form and function. Each hardware knob and pull is born on the wheel and finished with a series of controlled steps—holes carved, grooves sculpted, then glazed in a restrained palette of matte teal, soft white, or charcoal brown—before the metal is joined in a harmony that honors both material worlds. The result is a luxury hardware collection that reads as both intimate and architectural, a tactile invitation encoded with texture and a sense of artisanal ceremony. In Castro’s own words, the tactile is essential—ceramics are made to be touched, and the specialty hardware derived from them extends that principle into the realm of design, turning everyday cabinet knobs and pulls into a premium, collectible expression of craft.

In the lineage of luxury modern hardware, Castro’s work stands as a beacon of handcrafted, artisan-made elegance. The collaboration with Nest Studio hardware embodies a refined philosophy: that material truth—ceramic, glaze, brass, and wheel-turning technique—can translate into hardware that feels singular, purposeful, and sculptural in its presence. It is hardware that does more than function; it articulates a mood, a story, and a tactile memory of touch.