Pottery in the History of Tunisia
Descriptions of the production process
Jars Antique Amphoras for home and garden decoration
reproduction of moorish decoration
Hand made pottery with modern design
Vase Decorated with flowers in relief
Pottery decorated with silver wire
Hand mad paintings on the wood
Wooden mirrors covred with decorated layer of resin
Handpainted Wooden Tea Tray
 

How we do it ?

    we produce pottery in a traditionnal way ...
             

1.the mine of clay:

The extraction of the clay from the mine is made , in underground galleries, by picking manually the rock. Then, the clay is transported in baskets, and pile up. The piles of rough clay are sold to the potters as raw material.

Clay in a rough state  
 

2.Treatments:

                               
 
clay washing-basin Workman emptying the basin Kneading by trampling Kneading by beat
       
 

the clay undergoes several treatments:

washing and kneading:

this phase consists in preparing an earthen mixture with water for which one must obtain a perfectly homogeneous paste. Washing is done in basins and lasts 2 days.

Then the kneading comes which consists in trampling the mixtured paste or to beat it in order to deaerate and make it more homogeneous. One adds sometimes mineral matters (like the powdered terracotta ) to the clay in order to harden its consistency .

 

 
                                       

Shaping:

There are two ways to do it. The first consists in extending the paste with the hands into long coils called " f' tila " a coil is formed into a ring, the object is built up by superposing a succession of rings that are then smoothed on the wheel. This pottery-making technique " f' tila " is used especially to built up large size items like the earthenware jars and the large Amphoras.

With the use of the wheel it's possible to obtain regular circular forms of differents sizes thanks to a skilful handling of the clay paste and the speed of the wheel commanded generally by the potter's foots.

 

   

Drying and firirng:

 
  Drying's cellars Open air Drying                          
 

To avoid the breaks in Firing stage and to obtain solid and consistent articles, our pottery is dried in the open air for the small articles, or in cellars for the large ones (earthenware jars,Amphoras), and that for one 21 days period.

Firing is made in traditional pottery furnaces under a temperature reaching 1200ー C. In reality Firing is done in two times, the first time consisting in heating the articles under a progressive fire going from 50ーC to 600ーC during 48h, at this stage the flame is obtained from the combustion of palm tree trunks. In the second time the temperature is brought to 1200ーC thanks to the powerful flame of the palms, and that during 10 hours.

  traditional pottery furnace
 

Decoration:

Our pottery is hand decorated, the motifs are inspired from the islamic decorative art based on geometric forms, foliate shapes (arabesque style) and some figural representations of both fantastic and real animals.

     
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ゥ 2004 Poterie de Tunisie
21, Rue Jerusalem|2037|Ariana|Tunisia

email:
poterien@gmail.com

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