The A to Z process of making of our Spanish pottery collections is a fascinating, age old tradition, preserved and passed from family to family by generations of ceramic artisans whose roots and main influences can be traced back to Moorish times. We regularly travel to the potteries that we import from in Spain and never cease to be amazed and fascinated at the painstakingly long and complex process involved in the creation of the pottery. 

The traditional methods still used by these Spanish potters are extremely time consuming and laborious and when fully understood, allow a deeper appreciation of the patience and passion that the artists put into each piece…a passion that does not exist in much of today’s modern pottery and ceramics as a result of mechanisation and industrialization.

Traditionally prepared Spanish Pottery
Before a piece of pottery can be created on the wheel, there is a long slow process involved in the preparation of the clay itself to make it suitable for working and firing. Our potteries use the famous “Cordoba Clay”, which is a yellowish white in colour and dug straight out of silt deposits along the banks of rivers in the locality, in large semi dry blocks.
These blocks are then transported to the pottery, where they are left to dry out fully in the sun. Once completely dry, the lumps of clay are put in large pots, submerged in water and left to stand for a couple of days. The mixture becomes a soft sludge, which is rinsed  and then sieved by hand several times to remove any impurities, before being allowed to sit and settle for a couple of days.
The potters then have to test the shrink ability of the clay and if necessary add a sand based temper to the mix to bulk up the density of the clay to avoid the pottery cracking or deforming during firing.
The cured clay is then forced like a sausage through a special long tubular hand press to unify its consistency and remove air bubbles so that the very real possibility of explosions from hot trapped air during firing is reduced!.

Hand Turned Spanish Pottery
It is only after all this preparation work that the clay is ready for turning on the pottery wheels. The skill and speed of the potters as they take a lump of raw clay and turn it into a beautifully formed piece of pottery is a joy to behold… but the piece will not be admired for some time yet. The next step is to stack up the pieces and leave them to dry out completely, which can take from 30 to 60 days depending on their thickness and size. The pieces of pottery are then sanded to a completely smooth finish and fired at a low temperature so that they retain their shape during the finishing process.

Handpainted 
Artisan Spanish Ceramics
The decorating of the pottery is done in several stages. Firstly the base glaze is applied to each piece and allowed to dry fully. Then every ceramic piece is painstakingly hand painted with the unique designs, colours and motifs identifying the particular pottery it is made in and again left to dry fully to avoid the colours running or blending during the final firing. After the pottery has been fired it is carefully quality checked for any unacceptable defects.

Handmade pottery may have very slight variations in shape and tiny differences in the hand painted designs…but this is exactly what makes it a unique and collectable piece of art.