My Ceramics Class in Deruta...

March 20, 2012

So here is my update on Deruta ceramics.  David and I went to Deruta to look at all of the ceramics places while the kids were in school.  This is the first shop we saw up in the Centro Storico (historical center).

We were searching for a particular artist that had made a plate that our friend Kathy Simon had given to us.  See below…

We found out that she is no longer working, which made us really sad.  We kept looking at other artists and finally found this one:  

She let us take a picture of her while she worked…

Then showed us a finished piece prior to firing in the kiln…The pattern on the unfired bowl she is holding is the same as the square blue one in the background (bottom right of the four).

These are some examples of her finished work.  We love it...

We also went to her husband’s shop and took a picture of him along with his work.

We finally ended up at the famous Ubaldo Garcia Studio where they have been making ceramics for 500 years.  It's down from the Centro Storico on the main road into town.  This is where I went and took a three day course that lasted 3 hours a day for three consecutive days. 

My instructor’s name was Ricardo. He helped set me up the first day and showed me how to do a few of the strokes they use in their designs.  He also mixed the colors for me to use.  I spent the three hours painting the first tile.

The example tile is off to my left on the table.

The second day I went in and my instructor was sick, so Nico helped set me up with a plate to paint.  I used the same colors as the tile.  I  didn’t see Nico the rest of that day, so I just painted on my own.

I started by painting the outlines.

Then I filled in with color.  The example plate is off to my left.

After three hours I still hadn't finished the plate, so I came back the next day.

On the third day I was completely on my own.   I was lucky that there was an Irish woman there named Carol who answered a few of my questions and helped me a bit.  She was so nice.  She is a freelance artist and was doing some work in their studio.  She was not really happy with Nico as she said he was completely arrogant and none of the women there liked him.  He had an iPhone with an app that had an American woman as the voice.  He would talk to her and say things like “Do you love me?”  and the phone would say “No”.  Then he would ask why not, and the phone would say “I was wondering that myself.”  Then he would tell the phone that he was Italian and that someday she would fall in love with him, and the phone would say “That is highly unlikely.”  We were all laughing…

Anyway, after two more hours, I finished my plate.

Then a few weeks later, we were able to pick up the finished pieces.  They even gave me a certificate for completing the course there…

It was definitely a worthwhile experience J

~Mary