Free Shopify theme · Art & Crafts · Warm Artisan
Slipcoat & Rib
A terracotta and saffron storefront for a one woman shop in Bisbee, Arizona that cuts pottery ribs from boxwood offcuts.
Published October 4, 2026. Built from a brief, no account needed to download.
The brief this store was built from
Slipcoat & Rib is a one woman shop in a converted miner's garage in Bisbee, Arizona, run by Inés Varga, who taught ceramics at a community college for nineteen years and got tired of plastic ribs that snapped. She cuts every rib from boxwood offcuts bought from a flute maker in Tucson, shapes the curve on a belt sander, files the working edge by hand and soaks each one in walnut oil for a week. Every set is tested on a bowl at her own wheel before it ships.
- Product
- Wheel Rib Set of Three, $46
- About it
- Three boxwood pottery ribs in kidney, crescent and straight shapes, each with a hand filed working edge. They are oiled for a week so they stay true in wet clay and can be refreshed with a drop of walnut oil.
- Brand facts
- Every rib is cut from boxwood offcuts that a flute maker in Tucson would otherwise burn. Each rib soaks in walnut oil for seven days so it does not swell in wet clay. Every set is used on a bowl at the shop's own wheel before it is packed.
- Style
- Warm Artisan. Warm & friendly — rounded buttons, handcrafted feel
Who this theme is for
A maker who sells tools to other makers: pottery ribs, carving knives, weaving combs, bookbinding bone folders. These shops have one strong product and a buyer who already knows what a good one feels like, so the page has to show the material and the hands that shaped it before it asks for anything. The Warm Artisan layout uses rounded buttons and soft cards that feel like a workshop counter rather than a supply catalog, and it suits a shop with one set and a few single pieces.
What was decided in the brief
The style is Warm Artisan on its terracotta variant. The primary colour is the burnt orange of wet terracotta and the accent is a saffron yellow close to fresh boxwood, so the store reads like the bench the ribs are used on. The brand facts lead with where the wood comes from and the week of oil because a potter's first worry about a wooden rib is that it will warp in water, and the testing on a real bowl comes last as the proof.
What is in the ZIP
- A single-product homepage: hero, trust strip, benefits, how-to-use or specs, reviews, final call to action.
- The whole store shell: product, collection, cart, search and 404 templates, header, footer, announcement bar.
- Valid Shopify 2.0 sections with schema, so every line of text is editable in the Shopify editor.
- The photos you see in the preview, ready to swap for your own.
Questions
- Is this Shopify theme really free?
- Yes. You download a complete Shopify 2.0 theme ZIP and no account is needed. In your Shopify admin go to Online Store, then Themes, then Add theme, then Upload zip file.
- I sell a set and also single tools. Can the theme show both?
- Yes. Put the set on the home page as the featured product and the single tools in a collection, so a first time buyer sees the set and a returning potter can replace one rib.
- Where do I explain how to care for wooden tools?
- In the product description or on its own page linked from the footer. Care steps like drying and oiling read best as a short list under the price.
