Participating Artisans

BARBOTINE

Products description

The vast majority of the ceramic cookware, bake ware and kitchen accessories made at Barbotine are turned manually by Philippe Beltrando and his team. Some products are made from molds designed in the Barbotine workshop. All the handles are shaped or pulled by hand. All of the round plates are carefully calibrated.

A combination of traditional know-how and expert movements create the exceptional Provençal and Mediterranean pottery that has earned Barbotine the EPV (Living Heritage Company) Label, issued by the French government in recognition of master craftsmanship.

All of Barbotine's creations are adapted to everyday use-the pieces are dishwasher and microwave safe!

The Barbotine stamp on each piece guarantees each piece's origin and quality.

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FAIENCERIE GEORGES

Company description

 

Faience manufacturing

Earth, red or white clay, is worked by several techniques to the shape to get. Turned, molded or calibrated, each piece will then undergo a first phase of drying out to obtain a "leather consistency". The Modeler can then provide necessary definition to the piece without deforming it. After the modeling phase is completed, the work is signed with a knot in the clay, on the back of the piece.

After a second full drying phase, the piece is cooked in the oven at 1050° C to obtain a "biscuit" consistency. The clay, thus rid of organic impurities, becomes "clean and porous", thus ready to be glazed.

The piece is then covered with an enamel containing tin. Different methods can be used, depending on the shape and the size of the piece, but the dipping process predominates. It ensures a perfectly homogeneous base layer. Generally white or blue - the famous blue of Nevers - the process does allow for the use of any enamel color to be applied as a base before firing the piece at low temperature.

Finally comes the essential phase of the decor. Made with metal oxides, a final silica-based paste is directly applied "on raw enamel". This technique, characteristic of the Nevers faience, requires a very specific know-how, because the raw enamel is an unstable medium for the artist. The Decorator signs her work with two green knots interlaced with the maker's name.

All of the enamel and decoration is set in a single firing. This is the technique of the "great fire": at 980°C, enamel melting welcomes the oxides of the previous décor before freezing in place during the cooling process. When being removed from the oven, the piece that emerges is gleaming, smooth, homogeneous, perfectly sealed, with the fineness decor remaining intact.

Each manufactured piece is therefore a unique work of art.

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MARTINE GILLES JAAP WIEMAN

Company description

• 1972-1975 Martine Gilles was taught the ancient techniques of the potter's wheel, brushwork decoration and high temparature pottery in the studio of FIGAS OLUCHA at Ribesalbes in Spain.
• 1975 The setting up of her workshop in the Château of the village of Brantes, which includes the work of a potter, a moulder, decorator and the firing of the pottery.
• 1978 Jaap Wieman, potter and ceramist joined the workshop
• 1991 She attained the title of Maître Artisan Faïencier (Master Potter)
• Creation of decoration for tiles for the potteries Martres Tolosane, Malicorne and Sola France.

Products description

Both tableware for daily use and the more decorative items which they develop are created with simplicity and fantasy: Complete table services, small butter and jam dishes, unusual water jugs, fantastic and full of curves as well as the production of decorative tiles for the home. Martine draws on her childhood and the Provençal culture: A festival, fruits, flowers, colours and butterflies.

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SUSAN URE

Company description

Sue Ure is a professional ceramicist whose work has been exhibited and sold principally in England and France since 1987. The techniques and traditions of ancient pottery - Minoan, Egyptian and Asian, have been an enduring inspiration. Her work is about clean, clear outlines; about form and it's emotional as well as decorative impact. Making pieces whose essential tranquility are at ease in a multitude of environments; creating a link between user and maker which crosses time and culture.

Since her move from London to southwest France in 1994, her work also shows the influence of the surrounding rural landscape. The commanding silhouettes of Gascony's hilltop chateaux d'eau, for example, have been absorbed and transformed into a striking new range of vase forms (see Homes and Gardens, Nov 2009).

She designed and made a collection of pots for the Tate Modern shop, in association with their major Gauguin exhibition (Sep 2010 - Jan 2011).

Products description

Each piece is hand-thrown in white stoneware and porcelain, decorated and glaze-fired to 1260°C. Work is produced in small series, and, from conception to completion, takes about eight weeks.

A wide colour range of satin-matt glazes are mixed in the workshop. Two or three glazes are often combined on one piece and are complemented by bands of copper, platinum and luminous coloured lustres.

Production evolves constantly but is always unified by the core elements of purity of outline and harmonious colour grouping.

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