I’ve been a potter for over 35 years (you can visit my website at www.janewolters.com). In October of 2011 I was fortunate to go on a pottery/art tour to Crete and got seriously hooked on art-oriented travel.
Crete
In Crete we visited Margarites, a pottery village in the mountains, for about 10 days and used a local potter’s studio to make pots inspired by our surroundings. The potter, Giorgios, showed us how he made his traditional forms, also how he prepared his clay, which he had dug himself from his property in the countryside. He showed us his wood fired kilns at the same site. He came from several generations of potters and there were many interesting things to see there. When we weren’t making pots we visited museums and archaeological sites and went on hikes around Margarites.
Giorgios’ studio
We visited a pottery where huge pots were made; planters, jars, bread pans, containers–all on a grand scale. They were shipped all over the world, many to the US. (Not Canada, apparently).
large pottery studio
In November 2012 I visited Morocco for 3 amazing weeks on another pottery tour.
In Morocco 15 of us toured in our own bus with a wonderfully helpful Moroccan guide and a driver. We started in Casablanca and went onto visit Rabat, Chefchaouen, Volubilis (an ancient Roman site), Meknes, Fes, Erfoud, Dades Gorge, Ouarzazate, Marrakech, Essaouira, and then back to Casablanca. On the way we went camel riding into the desert and stayed overnight in tents made of carpets, and in the morning watched the sunrise from atop a dune.
me on a camel
We visited several potteries; this was the first, in D’Har, a remote mountain village.
D’Har mountain pottery
Then in Fall of 2013 I was off to Sicily!
