ByMohamed HassanBell High School-

CA

Glass, metal, plastic, and craft products have recently appeared as alternatives to pottery products. This has led to a decline in the production of pottery of specific kinds. However, there is currently a trend in the medical field that advocates the use of natural materials in the production of cooking utensils, and hence encourages the use of pottery products in this industry

Ancestral pottery workshop near Maruza between Qena and Luxor, using locally extract argil

Men kneading argil with their foot while singing raucously in a weird choreography.

Another type of jars “Kolla”.It’s smaller to be moved from place to another easily and cool water quickly.

Pottery workshop in Qena

This workshop is in a village, called Garagous near my town,Qus.The famous Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy built the complex in 1950 using traditional mud-brick architecture that he was working to re-establish in Egypt. The workshop was very spacious and designed with functional workspaces for each task.

Girgus, the master potter, says he can throw about 200 pots a day. He follows the techniques first taught in Garagous in 1955 when two Jesuit monks from France established the centre with the assistance of a nephew, Robert De Mongolfier, who owned a pottery factory in France

In another zone, plates and casserole dishes are made using plaster moulds. Plates are probably the centre's most popular product decorated with birds and fish.

In the open-air courtyard the clay is prepared for the potters. The clay used in Garagous pottery comes from Abu Simbel. The raw clay arrives at the centre where it is mixed with water and then purified as the mixture passes through three screens of progressively finer mesh into a drying basin. The resulting clay is beautifully smooth and malleable.

( )شكـرًا شكـرًا

( )شكـرًا شكـرًا