Poterry in Zakynthos
Pottery is another very famous craft of Zakynthos and nowadays more and more artists produce a wide range of authentic handmade ceramics in forms, designs and colors inspired from life and nature of the Island.
Pottery produces not only decorative pieces such as vases, wall plates and plaques and mirrors
but also functional pieces such as jugs, bowls, coffee boxes, teapots etc.
Many ceramic studios are open to the guests of the island not only to admire and buy these wonderful craft pieces but to also watch closely the way of pottery making.
Sigouros is a pottery studio and craft gallery located in, Zakynthos Town, where you may see the whole process of making ceramics and also find fine pottery for purchase.
The process
Clay comes in plastic bags. I use clay from Greece but not from Zakynthos as the zakynthian clay is not suitable for my work; it is low fired (around 700oC), light yellow (ochre) in colour, and it is only good for tiles for the roofs and for big pots to keep olive-oil, wine and food inside. Clay I use is high fired (up to 1280oC), white in colour and painting shows better on it.
There are special factories which take the clay from the ground remove all the external materials and make the first step of preparation. Although clay is pug-milled from the factory it needs more preparation before we can use it to make ceramics.
The first step is to remove all the air bubbles, with special equipment: pug mill. If we don' t remove air, ceramics will broke during firing.
The pug mill compacts clay and in this way most (if not all) air bubbles are removed. Clay also becomes more firm, more plastic and easier to work with. Clay comes out from the pug mill in the shape of bars. Clay bars need to be cut in pieces according to the size of the items we want to make. In order to make things of the same size we have to cut clay in pieces of the same weight. Please see more information here
Please ask for more information at your hotel reception.
We will be happy to assist you.
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