I succumbed to my old love again
My grandmother already loved various clay pots, plates and bowls. They decorated almost every room in her family home, and as a six-year-old I decided that my home would look just as nice. Of course, I forgot about it later. Memories of my old love came alive about three years after college when I first sat down at the pottery wheel. It was then that I felt for the first time the miracle associated with the transformation of formless gray clay into an object of specific shapes and colors.
It happened in the small town of Thuir in the south of France, near the Spanish border, where I got involved in the life of the De l’Aspre cultural association. First, the local painter and sculptor Marie Fornos revealed to us various secrets about the properties of clay and the methods of its processing. After that, ceramist Claude Urban introduced me to work at the potter’s circle. I succumbed to my new hobby so much that I decided to study at the Ceramic Arts Training Center (CFA des métiers des arts ceramiques) in Saint-Quentin-de-la-Poterie. Already in the name of this picturesque town, a long-standing tradition in the production of ceramics is encrypted. La poterie means pottery, and the town is home to a wide community of artists and craftsmen who are focused in this way. At the first admissions interview, they rejected me, let me come back again in a year. At the second attempt, they already understood that I was really serious. And so, in 2012, I received a diploma as a professional ceramicist.
During my studies, I completed two internships with local ceramicists. Nathalie Hubert allowed me to work on different shapes of utilitarian ceramics, that is, on different forms of jugs, glasses, bowls, plates and baking dishes. In Patrick Galtié’s workshop, I got acquainted not only with the large-scale production of ceramics, but also with various glazes. I completed another four-week internship in Dubai and Abu Dhabi under the guidance of ceramicist Homa Vafaie Farley of Iranian origin. I honed my skills at the potter’s wheel and helped her organize an exhibition of her own work and that of her students.
Currently, I am engaged in the production of useful and decorative ceramics as well as organizing individual and group courses in ceramics. I expanded my activities to the creation of clay models, which are used to make casts for the restoration of facades and interiors of historic buildings. At the same time, I teach French. However, I am not unfamiliar with English and Spanish either.
