"A bizarre and noble craft..." A village pottery in Andalucia

[Music] I'm sitting in one of Neha's old era buttons as a child in Arabia my passion was searching for broken pots in the desert wondering what stories lay behind them I could have become an archaeologist but I ended up becoming a Potter one of the reasons for settling here in niha was the chance to work with the local Potter's using their traditional techniques this is nikkah an under Lucien village famous for its pottery until fairly recently there were 15 workshops making ceramics in a traditional style peculiar to the village there is still for working countries but only one continues to fire with wood in the traditional way but servora disappeared learn what to say bab colonia together Anisa its harmonica fiddling the rocket or tow integral in Monaco see you solamente Cavanaugh that's our legacy co2 you desire I'll be there to back you know team swoosh you know no tiene que separated cannot rule away no Priscilla da de de esos silicon oh no no no see Davina moon I mean why I lo que c'est quoi no did you do a little test and I see Dada yeah hello into tau magna press akamaru yeah to the pentacle okay artisanal okay Serrano yes the lead glaze runs too much to be used in a modern kiln as it messes up the machinery in the old arab ovens built from bricks of unfired clay the glaze melts into the fabric of the oven itself lead glazes produce a brilliance of color that is unmatched by any other glaze and they were once used practically anywhere ceramics are made Laird is still an ingredient in many ceramic glazes but Neha is the only place that I know of still using the type of lead called Galena tourism which began in the region during the 1970s has helped keep traditional crafts alive while other aspects of the old way of life have virtually disappeared the traditional orchard agriculture has been replaced by intensive vegetable farming in plastic greenhouses the greenhouses are doubly profitable as they produce more vegetables which also fetch a higher price being out of season the area was originally settled over 5000 years ago by mining communities exploiting the rich variety of metals deposits of gold silver copper lead and iron have been mined here in the past the wealth of mineral deposits is due to volcanic activity along the fault line between the continental plates of Africa and Europe the magma which volcanoes bring up from the Earth's core in the form of lava contains a higher proportion of metals than the rocks at the Earth's surface the area takes its name Cabo de gata or cape of a gates from the abundance of these semi-precious stone agates are made from molten silica the colors and patterns produced by the different metals present and the way it formed silica is the main ingredient of both clays and glazes so you could say that a Potter mimics the action of a volcano different elements are extracted from the earth in combined with fire to make a kind of artificial agate Nica was the natural focus for settlement in this extremely arid region a number of powerful and reliable Springs make Neha's and sheltered Valley a real oasis the Clay's vinegar pottery are dug on the eastern edge of the village millions of years ago this area was a lake and this yellow clay was the sludge at the bottom produced by erosion of the surrounding hills / álvaro gentlemen Anita come on doctor una Guerra loved Antigua that are filled Antigua by Rosetta pursue technology we do remove 40 yeah gady in the same way condensate attended ha ha ha see a party si si Riata yoga guru can we make ramen Lao tractor of interrogation Ilham a Claddagh Lagos cellphone a washing machine motor drives metal blades around a tank full of water to which the earth is added the liquid clay runs out to a channel where it is saved to remove any stray pebbles a liquid clay then runs into a large settling tank and left to dry this can take from two to four weeks when the clay is manageable it is taken inside for storage the Potter scrapes off the dust and leaves that settled on the clay during drying the clay is stored in a cool dark place near the wheel and covered with damp cloths in the old days one of the most time-consuming jobs was to prepare the clay it had to be kneaded like dough for Brahe to remove any air box Potter's are grateful to the pug mill for saving them tedious effort joaquin rounds the edges off to make throwing easier [Music] Centralia marquales I began yo-yo with a particularly notable Picasso Grampus tomorrow - odd Rohan takeo ito semi Padre low millionaire tono portentous Ahava Granada trivago nosotros en toda mi pelo cocinero no pants in your yoga no peasant any booze sir are a votre nom are Egon a lotta poo new graph wearin a gibbet abortion in total yo trabajo seem prefer a yes vote on a song about jihad Ania recovering Tanya [Music] professor Lithonia general Quinto multiplicative porque como yo yo como si una pieza say no say no se puede pika I get a given row each other a sativa theone Percy la Stella tiene que cuando una pieza it's in territory the wonderful did a once you hit yet appear older Cassano a given community Roberta 100 total ro la Poma Tanaka Herrera levanta la la passive ro ro habla fear oh no no no not meant a of a local event in London I love into like a member marala and I'm interrogating under a pencil organ organ of infinite endotoxins Andre when is poss-eye poss-eye in auditorium were a lot of original - I saw this the control is put to one side for the clay to dry a little before the neck is applied these large belly jugs were used for carrying water until the 1970s when plumbing was installed in the houses villagers had to go and get water from one of four public fountains of course children were often sent to get the water and the jugs were often broken cantos were therefore one of the main items a potter had to supply and it's one reason why Neha's ovens are so big because they had to be cheap they were always unglazed the same is true of our cabooses which were the pots that went round the water wheels with a high casualty rate a donkey would drive the arm of the nuria to draw up water from underground wells or reservoirs [Music] handles are made by preparing a rough sausage of clay this is applied to the pot and then pulled into shape when making handles with other types of clay such as red earthenware you want the clay to be drier than for throwing in Neha the clay has to be slightly wetter or it tends to crack [Music] the forms thrown these days are smaller than in the past a tourist wants something that will fit in hand luggage smaller pots are made by stack throw that is the dirty great lump of clay is thrown onto the wheel and Russell sent the centrifugal force of the wheel throws the clay away from the center the Potter has to counteract this force by pulling with both hands the object is to make a cone from which a series of pulse can be thrown the Potter squeezes the cone upwards and now the clay is opened up by pushing into the center and bringing up the beginning of the Cotswolds [Music] the pot has to be sturdy enough to withstand some more operations it will be bathed with white slip then painted bathed in glaze and then stacked in the oven bearing the weight with many other parts all this without being fired the base of the pot is left thick so a foot ring can be shaped once the pot is there car this also prevents the pot from flopping when taken off of the wheel once finished the party's cut off the stack using a piece of twine or plaited esparto grass the thickness of the thread ensures the base is flat and even by using the force of the wheels movement and to count the clay rather than the cutting edge and of a finer thread the potter sets them on a plank or table to be taken outside to dry a little but not too much when the pot is stiffer a white ground this is so that the colors will show as painting straight on to the clay itself would just give a variety of dull Browns [Applause] the white ground is curling and comes from a village near the coast called the lukela at the top of the mountain there is a famous gold mine pockets of curling are found on the lower slopes formed by the weathering of volcanic rocks if Kalin were a clay it would become transparent with the glaze but it has a much higher melting point which prevents this from happening the texture of the local Kalin is left rough so that it helps to diffract light increasing the brilliance of the lead crystal glaze in the 19th century the Kalin from Rodger Keller was used in Spain's prosperous porcelain industry the name Kalin means shining and refers to the mountain was first produced in 1000yen valid okay no bouquet mirela how volcano be a mighty mother ha the pots are brought inside when still slightly soft or leather hard-working sets one bowl on top of another so they will dry evenly and slowly without warping or cracking a shape cool the Chuck is thrown on the wheel to hold the pot while turning the foot ring as the clay is still wet kaylynn is dusted on to prevent the clay from sticking to and staining the pot turning a foot ring makes the pot lighter while retaining its strength a foot ring adds elegance while making the pot easier to handle and to stack in the oven the potter uses a piece of metal to make the shape by cutting into the object as it turns in the same way as you would working with a lathe poles are made in the foot ring for hanging a plate on the wall once the white pots are dry they're ready for painting the leg glazes need not make very beautiful colors but cause a problem because they run all over the place the fact that they run means that you have to fire things upside down to stop the glaze accumulating at the bottom of the pot this also means that the pots are just stacked one on top of the other so the glaze will run off and the glaze runs onto the other pots this actually gives some very beautiful effects like in this case where a blue part has run onto a yellow part and cause this interesting streaking but it also causes the defects of mija pottery which is where the supports holding up the other parts have become stuck by the glaze to the pots as it's generally sold cheap this is not really a big problem because the glaze runs so much you can't do any representations of animals or Birds or fishes because they just get lost with the running so people just don't bother and put blobs of the brytny hot colors on any old-fashioned and then the runs will make attractive combinations of green and yellow and so on this technique is called Jeunesse gas because of its similarity to parts from China in the Tang Dynasty which use exactly the same technique another way around the problem of the running of the glaze is to paint with a thing called the latter which just means tin can in Spanish and these rather nice homemade tins are the ones they used to use to put on a heavy blob of color this means that where the blob was put on the Karla remains very intense but it also produces streaks with the running of the glaze which make a very attractive effect on the white ground of the came to show how the latter is used we went to another workshop nearby here Rosa Garcia specializes in slip trailer using blue from the mineral cobalt oxide cobalt blue is by far the most powerful colorant available to bottles the color is so strong that one kilo of cobalt makes 50 of color a little she'll go up again but I thought no no I didn't throw the most go see you needn't go Alto Nikon proper chemical simpler season back so these elements you know the fantasy now imaginary about product he told his harmonica he sees a coronal appear in a physical wound or a ceramic empezar gambia para correr Fiona in total Jesse Jesse would refer a foo okay signal nobita-kun put a corner from the club to the terminal symbols it's a blue glow to little homie no no no possibly Terranova get a bogan home till the Finca same in Pasadena Greg wanted a voluminous Ultra Plata valium for the SEPA in total volume kilos incoming said no voy a comprar party today de magie deponent a tonight a den de Malaga Kavi velvet also say in Korean mal platter on the floor al build a year Maroni socialism Oh throw a lotta in la-la la-la no no if knowing months and lotta say multiple but the de Levante taught about the multiple today the robbery only in building ok much about the mozzarella the color green is made with copper oxide our Maria has many deposits of copper worked from the very beginning of the age of metals over six thousand years ago in 1882 the region yielded 800 tons of copper here we are in a Roman copper mine copper was extremely important to the Romans as it is today to modern electronics and the Romans only had access to the ores of Cyprus so they were interested in AWS for many other parts of their empire in fact the modern word copper comes from the Latin ayah skip real or stone of Cyprus as you can see the mine workings are quite extensive metal ore was taken by donkey round to the other side of the mountain and processed in the same way as iron that is the rocks were thrown into a long chimney snaking up the side of the mountain a fire would be lit in some ovens at the bottom and the heat would rise up the chimney over a period of days this process removes the oxygen that finds the metal to the mother rock the brittle rocks were then crushed and washed in a mixture of oil and water the oil floats and brings the lighter metal to the surface when you want to do a proper drawing or convey some information which would otherwise get lost in the running of the glaze the only way you can do it is to actually engrave into the unfired part scratching through the Kiernan to show the clay beneath yellow is made with the oxide of iron iron was sacred to many peoples who knew it only from fragments of meteorites fallen from the sky as such it was greatly revered as a powerful gift from above for this reason iron is often associated with thunder gods such as Thor here we are inside an iron mine iron oxide which is basically rust is the material used to give yellow in combination with the lead glaze of niha pottery although iron is one of the most common metals it was the one that was discovered latest because of the high temperatures needed to smelt it in this case the Potters take the darkest rocks to fire them in the oven and then they turn back into the orange color that we see here lying around the mind the iberian x' used it to draw designs in red on unglazed pots around 600 BC the brushes are handmade by tying the hair round the end of a whittled stick the brush is made thick to absorb more color and long so as not to damage the surface of the pot the best hair comes from the neck of a donkey this mineral is manganese oxide it produces a color that ranges from brown to pink which I find useful for flesh tone it comes from a mine near the village of Ferdinand Peter manganese is a common mineral that was used to draw black lines on the very earliest decorated pots some 8,000 years ago in Mesopotamia Brown is little used in most ceramic decoration because of its similarity to the color of the clay itself blazing begins with making a glue from ordinary flour the object of the flour post is to make the glaze stick to the pot as it tends to run off to fire to create a thick enough layer the paste also helps to prevent the dangerous lead dust coming off the pot when handling and stack wall glasses and glazes are basically made from silica the silica used is normally from crushed sand or quartz the lead is added to bring the melting point of silicon from 1400 degrees centigrade to one thousand if the temperature was any higher the clay of the pot would start to deform and collapse most health problems caused by led are in fact environmental in parts of Britain where the water is acid lead poisoning was caused by the led used in planning niha Potter's feel that the dangers of lead are greatly exaggerated and treated very casually their exposure to lead dust is only when making the glaze which takes place six or seven times a year this might be what saves their health the lead sulphide used comes from a mine at the top of the mountain behind Neha but a hippo aqui pika 100 km you now have a today the pro-bowl say I wanna be cast upon el hombre Sakha bhava Mook of apologies for camporee atomic on a que no había que no se lock on it Boca Bella not allow Coquina hilarium Maria pyah pyah Baba who both Oh Yakko suppose okay Sasa cabin say chavin una vida es grande canto Abra sedara you MOT all say los Ruby amo en el en el vido Bahama Abajo Lobo daikon Oviedo neso suebian Ella come bro / Reba Antone second son even por El Pozo puede Hacienda de peepee book on door oh hey perro de terre la la boca de la mina donde se acaba la mineral para hacerlo lo veo en el : mineral a away know hermano egg we know Lavasa i je la la la la la i hermano lo t Robin hobb ah ho e pasaba por la macchina ki Abajo ba-ba-ba-ba-bom and we know it look at all roti Ramon Alvero Galena is a mineral containing silver lead and sulfur the proportions of the two metals can vary from pure silver to pure lead veins of pure silver found here at Villa Rico's were worked from ancient times the area was conquered by Rome in the 2nd century BC to avenge defeats suffered at the hands of Hannibal who came from Cartagena nearby the Romans used slavery to increase production of both metals the silver was used to pay their armies while the lead was used to create the plumbing systems of their cities it was found that lead could also be used to make pottery glazes which spread throughout the Roman world in the first century BC leha's tradition therefore goes back over 2,000 years tim porque tengo he simply target into the far idea yo yo nunca ningún problema de toledo casaya move to the motive oh no no no no bloody inept oh la la vieja or developer Amica antigua waffle ready antigua tour summer tour Chintan event on Tolo SEK so no no no porque no no convert it promotes Drita he must listen polvo kill policy arcadia porque la la la real fast Drita makeup on awawa no no no Siriano duncan typical maintenance REO REO muchacha analogy proper today i'm identity no cannot what a certain even european promote the Jupiter 2 when glazing the family is called in to help all the pots are glazed on the same day if a disaster strikes such as a high wind or a winter shower of rain there have to be a number of people on hand to get the pots quickly inside Shyama yeah la pieza de una mano passed a paramedic if not even miss Yeung casa para la higuera for Marlo cada Becky bottom internet Katia zombie someone being like to see the party una generally today to see teammate Piniella see you drew it worked at pass a piranha Subhan Allah MIMO crudo coffee de la casita miscible important you know Nikki Brie Bella already loved the trophy enter water of the intact colobus wooden from PC in Cologne Allah okay Tata I'm Lemuria support team total usage oh man I only present simple film from a mile vehicle a tandem wheel sir [Music] stacking an oven is a bit like playing with Lego the largest element of the construction is the churro a thing like a sausage of clay these sausages are made as big as is practical if they were longer they would always be cracking the churro is used to make a series of box frames within which the pots are mount these box frames will be the support for the second floor of stacked pots all the side spaces of film and [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] americium a whole Kathy everyone knew he went down to Center our work in la vie de cambio midpoint 1414 Oh porky 12 vo and Tromaville a given geometry and Karen lockira Myka Ambro pasado Rican simonia be remember stop once the oven is as full as a rush hour train and you can't squeeze in any more clocks the oven is ready to be fun the door is sealed with homemade bricks and some clay the clay will shrink during firing and the resulting cracks will allow the oven to breathe during cooling this is a strange moment for the Potter after all the hard work has been done you have the magic of firing to look forward to but the firing could also turn out badly and destroy the work of three months the fuel which will be used is a plant called retama which thrives on poor soils it has many thin branches which make it burn with great intensity because of the heat by day firing usually takes place at night the gongura have been criticized for burning wild plants in such an arid region the retama though is only cut and will grow back from its roots allowing more harvests in the future the fact that it is not collected anymore creates a danger of forest fires thank you he didn't really onion no you're right a little silicon are like a little squirt idea only level I say I say Mira it was I mean I get a given talita ck2 around India in kill Nora Linea no not really nice you know you know you can take an Iranian allowed into the SEM primarily of Lamar supervisor you are I separated to work in wonder nothing applet regolith it is finca lomas de su tierra llamando is I didn't even tell ya been - familia viviendo s him though he enter a surrender enterpreneur mother Linda so Tara Munsey hola say came to read he I guess he hombres a Whovian there Elena their part to serve in the end this a part of her Linda you know Cinco de camino poor canto de vivir mo del del monte de cuarto Elena yo Aaron if I see entonces una caja de línea valia Ocho pasetta ya big eater Sofia toss a la casa say about a theand a de línea arrow euro Preciado pony jacala Catalina Anto ten avianna mucuna ke any hawk era la carrera para VAP Abajo Kalevala vickicooper Alenia [Laughter] the black smoke that billows out is not nearly as unhealthy as it looks it comes from the retama plants not from the pot and carries no polluting elements the smoke is no worse or better than that of a log fire the Potters have no means of telling the temperature that the oven has reached and have to inspect the chimneys to see how the pots are getting on what the Potter is looking for is the moment when the inside of the chimney changes color from white to yellow a brown this is when the sulfur is released from the lead sulphide in the glaze and is the point where the glaze turns into glass at night a rope of esparto grass is lowered through the chimney holes to shed some light on the question the potter uses a special hook to take out a small pot placed there for the purpose the Potters main fear is of overcooking which could be a real disaster destroying all the pots in the oven under firing is always preferable as the pots can always be fired again if necessary the Potter is checking that there are no opaque milky spots of unmelted Glens if it looks all right the oven is hurriedly sealed the holes in the rusty cover to the firebox are deliberate in that the oven needs some passage of air to allow it to cool the cracks in the other door serve the same purpose if there were no currents of air the pots closest to the firebox would burn from the accumulated heat the GaN gaara's always leave a week for the oven to cool smaller ovens can be opened after only a couple of days but the Gong gaara's aren't in any hurry they use the time to attend to other things the workshop gets a good clean and maybe another coat of whitewash opening up the oven always seems to me like breaking into Tutankhamun's tomb beyond the unpromising brick door lies a hidden treasure unseen by human eye once taken out the pots have to be separated from each other and their supports the glaze has run onto the tripods which are broken off and the sharp bits of glass removed their sheath in early in the winter even doing a give us in Rotterdam again forgotten until mentira para muchos countenancing yeah well that Plateau Tarara Horta consultation is lucid Indian hemp locally on the sovereignty of independent a communal Alicia to the multimedia Emilia of the medulla in the relevant to pamper you conceive Indian contain he simple simple Lulu Laguna even video SEO contour gamma theta Laura Tomita because has a la rhetoric Tim Pavillion well opposed Oh Theodore Rose away an irritant a guitar man a couple defend you present a monolith are supposed to be family romantic Oh Savannah travel girls over the same flow of the Taliban wa common are contentious also remain tomorrow in October secrecy McGee La Noria Osaka a weapon so this is how unbalanced all the unglazed wear has been cooked in the firebox as the direct flames won't damage these some large items too big to fit in the upper part of the oven are fired in the firebox as well these are only glazed on the inside but being closer to the flames the changes in temperature are more sudden increasing the risk of cracking solimene tantaros alum Etica he Araceli kassapa Palacio a look I'd rather have mentioned Aggie a to Ruth Unitec 2000 ago say he taught the system Ba Sing se the frente al Kotaro la gente la to him first he endorsed a atre author consider running a pocket Avanti oh you're not not enough a have new demos Tammy Salem beer el calor Edo Cantara dr. Laurie Cecil okada-kun to continue nudity Java presenting tava subha Vienna for Ottawa Garcia gonna be theranos Dubois yeah Oh Monica come on him bro malaria CDI mucho para Madonna s aperitivo yeah no Sam no no the person in the video laughter how harmful to marine boy whatcha got there are ten years ago a bogey double bogeyed the 13th Ave Park agency recently found the power da booty doe Akasaka say here at una casa de poco misogynist he believed himself I think it was aliens occur in doe the marks left are retouched with ordinary gloss paint this is not the most perfect way to cover up the hot congenital defects but it's the best you can do given the low sale price of the finished article acceptable graphic material numeral the vieja hey instructor for employee sepia a numero Ocho numero de boeuf a BS aside built aguado Trinity quadruple Anita and numero they asserted a give ellipta SATA la Pieta can even require in favor in topeka lady achieve oocha oocha oocha ba ha you know chop is a grande big were in Thailand Ave Kenya in Somalia for interview hop again Yekaterinburg yes the CSS team a vinta como drama suits in India pururava so India ballpark in Paris and Ito per kilo Yahoo in the popular [Applause] the first thing that you notice on entering the Gong giris shops is that hardly any of the pots are theirs most of the ceramics are made using molds in factories at manesis in Valencia or La Rambla in Cordoba the explanation is that their own stuff is mostly sold wholesale to other shops along the Costa del Sol they also make as much money selling pots from elsewhere as they do with their own in spite of the prosperity of their business Haku can't see a future for Neha's traditional ceramics Yo no veo dual of a puny little human arrow por que otra vez a a low if Oh see I'm gonna take another look Padre Pio your video will a VW on a cumbia story so are you two together a lotta fun you know I mean on tomorrow you know you know ants in your video joining us is not terrific for our area well you know it well Ferraro you know Dena go ahead and Vanina visita something you have the notion I mean taste official fellows you know what your feet you Owen Sabrina Granada he pass intended taco salad it didn't simply enough he passes going to try una tradición de los padres 22 Sevilla you know Turkestan trance Endora no Brahim profit on Tinian or a fabric that's going hero movie no no sir Ferraro a parallel I am Nanyang Malo is Lucifer fe CN bar well Cassie are forego to la Vida intent of se SE se llaman giovanni tiempo Malo pero ahora venison Danika a man who's taken not on is it that instrumental Axia moon apart or in some other case whenever at the prom are a severity she not tippeligaen that tell me Padre came ashore total Aviara Hagen lockira mica in a solid region de toda get on Oprah Brando uno no are : dawn Oh Papa you know no Yin Motaba uhand oh yeah tomorrow yeah solamente con la presencia attacked yeah get a coma so Draghi algo para maana each other some the other ISM the Catania de la Vida pottery a noble and very trade the first craft of all as in the art of clay God was the first Potter and man the first pot [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Jerry Duller

Views: 190,869

Rating: 4.8575344 out of 5

Keywords: ceramic techniques, Craft (TV Subject), Pottery (Hobby), lead glazing

Id: 6hUs5EHxsCY

Length: 51min 52sec (3112 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 21 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/CoSonfused]

There are still several artisanal potteries left, if I understand the video correctly. It's just that the brothers are the only that use woodfired kilns.

[u/Dick_Demon]

Going elbows deep in lead might have something to do with that.

[u/springcreek1966]

That was incredibly informative and entertaining. Thanks!