Welcome Pottery Mavens!

I thought you all would be interested in these photos of a couple of potteries that we visited in the Rhône Valley last month. Our Fodor's travel guide recommended a wonderful inn in the little medieval village of Cliousclat, which just happens to have been a village of potters. There's even a pottery museum there. So how could we pass it up, especially since the inn was reported to have excellent food as well as accommodations?

Carl after we've happily arrived at our inn—La Treille Muscat. It's actually in the Drôme Valley, which goes east from the Rhone. The area is quite beautiful.

An especially beautiful view down a little path in Cliousclat.

Enjoying a continental breakfast on our private balcony.

Here is the view from our balcony, with the next village down the road, Mirmande, framed in the arch.

We visited several different ceramic studios, two in Cliouscat, one in Mirmande, and a few in the much larger, less picturesque town of Dieulefit. I only took photos of two of the studios, one in Cliousclat and one in Mirmande.

The entrance to Poterie Nénuphar, in Cliousclat.

The potter at work. That Saturday morning he was giving a private lesson.

The potter, Serge Teysseire makes lots of functional pieces, but also handbuilds some very interesting art pieces as well. His shop is called Poterie Nénuphar. I think he uses a gas kiln.

Some of the more functional pieces.

His featured pieces.

An especially beautiful pot. He said that some of these were based on dreams.

After visiting this shop, we drove to the next village down the road, Mirmande, which was so beautifully framed by the arch on our balcony.

Street Scenes in Mirmande

I had a business card for this potter, but have misplaced it so I don't have her name. The photo above is the entrance to her shop. She does wonderful decorative work with colored slips on unfired pots, which you see here. Then I think they're re-fired with a clear glaze. She was quick to point out that she does use lead in some of her colors, so her pieces aren't safe for food use. These three large pots in progress were wonderful—notice the elegant shapes. A very friendly person, we enjoyed speaking to her, though Carl's French was without much of a ceramics vocabulary.

Three large unfired pots. The small pieces beside them represent the relative colors when fired.

A Close-up View.

Back in Cliousclat, we visited the pottery museum. My photos only show the area outside of the museum, where they sell a traditional style of pottery from the region. Much of it looked like it was molded, though of course the large pieces were thrown and coiled.

I don't think this one would fit in our kiln.