Linda, along with Linda Ward and Gayle Oyama, travelled to France for 3 weeks
in May 2014. After landing in Paris, they rented a car and drove to La Borne,
Henrichemont which is aproximately 225 km south of Paris.
La Borne is a famous old pottery town with amazing history of pottery and historic
kilns.
We settled in to our ‘Gite’ for the next 3 weeks. A Gite is a rental space provided
in a house by the owners.
The area has a multitude of old historic kilns which we toured.
This is the oldest kiln. It is dug into the ground.
This is the communal kiln at the La Borne Ceramic Center.
Mass production at the Bottani Dechaud Pottery Studio.
We were taking a three week tour/workshop on firing an amafama kiln with David
Leveau. This is his studio.
Having a snack in David’s house.
We had lots of tea in David’s studio.
David has a unique shard pile. He revisits it from time to time to see if any pots
should be reclaimed.
A local potter, George Sybesma, invited us to send a night helping him fire his
kiln.
We start the process by digging up the clay for making the pots for the firing.
Making our pots concentrating on keeping them ‘loose’.
We spend three days heating the kiln from the outside.
Five days firing inside the kiln. David lets the kiln cool each night and heats
during the day.
After eight days of firing and a day of cooling we’re done.
A last night out in Paris before heading home.
