Visiting Sigouros Pottery on Zakynthos in Greece - video

If you’re visiting the Greek island of Zakynthos and love hand-painted ceramics as I do, then you should visit the Sigouros Pottery Shop in Zante Town and also the workshop at Machairado to see the pottery being made. You can see a video about our visit to the Sigouros Pottery below.

In the 20 years I’ve been visiting Zakynthos (also known as Zante) where my sister lives, I’ve been adding to my ceramics collection on each visit to the Sigouros Pottery shop in Zante town. I was aware that they also had a workshop where you can see the pottery being made and painted, although I’d never had the chance to visit it until last summer. This time we drove our hire car out to Machairado, which is a 15 minute drive inland from Zante town, combining the visit with a stop for some wine tasting at Oenolpi Winery which is close by. Read my article and watch my video about the Oenolpi Winery here.

I have quite a collection of ceramics and other beautiful objects from my travels - you can read about My Travels on a plate here. What I love about the Sigouros designs are the soft colours and shapes and the slightly abstract motifs inspired by the natural beauty of Zakynthos. You’ll see the blue fish, the olives that grow everywhere and the lemons and pommegranates, that most self-respecting Zakynthians have growing in their back garden.

Sigouros Pottery shop in Zante town,Zakynthos

Sigouros Pottery from Zakynthos Greece

If you want to visit the workshop at Machairado, they’re open most mornings, but you may want to call into the shop in Zante Town if you’re passing to double check. When we wandered in to the workshop, we found the downstairs shop with all the ceramics on sale and the owner Sigouros Golemis came down to invite us upstairs to the workshop. He must have spotted us arriving as he has a bird’s eye view from the front window where his pottery wheel is set up.

Upstairs all the pottery is laid out to dry and awaiting painting before it’s fired in the kiln in the garden. We watched Sigouros in awe as he deftly threw pot after pot, it was slightly hypnotic watching him perfectly create the same shape over and over. Then we watched as the equally skilled lady etched the designs onto the bowls ready for painting and firing and then Sigouros let us peep inside the kiln where all the ceramics were being fired.

Sigouros told us that he was starting to think about retirement - he said that he could feel his fingers and hands getting tired after 25 years of throwing pots. Do take look at the video below which I hope will inspire you to drive out the the Machairado workshop if you’re visiting Zakynthos.

 
Click here to see the embedded video above

For directions and more details you can visit the Sigouros Pottery web-page.  

More things to do on Zakynthos

Saving the Caretta Caretta turtle on Zakynthos,Greece
A wine tasting at Oenolpi Winery on Zakynthos, Greece
A tour of Romas Mansion on Zakynthos

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The Banksy exhibition in Bristol

A while back I wrote a short piece about the Banksy Exhibition that took place back in July and August 2009 at the Bristol City Museum. You may never have heard of Banksy (until now), but here in Bristol he’s big news as the Bristol-born street-artist who made the big time. There are still a few pieces around town of his that I pass on my way to work every day although most of them have long ago been rollered over by the Bristol City Council. If ever Banksy had a major exhibition it was in Bristol that he was going to find an appreciative audience.

When the exhibition opened, the first thing I noticed were the long lines outside the City Museum which I pass on my wasy to work. Being a Banksy fan, I made a mental note to visit as soon as the crowds had died down after the first few days. But the crowds never did die down, bearing in mind that the Museum is free and so was this exhibition. Every day they got longer and longer until the side road was blocked by the queue and had to be closed and signs were put up showing how many hours you’d have to wait.

Banksy exhibition in Bristol Museum

Banksy exhibition in Bristol Museum

What you need to know about Banksy is that he carefully cultivates his anonymity and no-one knows who he really is (except the other street artists he used to hang out with and my son who apparently goes to the same school) The fact that he might be next to you in the queue always adds a little frisson of excitement. Banksy still comes up with the occasional piece of street art but he now seems to have moved on to collectable pieces. There was definitely a thing going on with the Old Masters theme in these Turner-esqe landscapes and the pieces in the gilt frames that were blended in with the other 19th century artwork on the first floor.

Banksy exhibition in Bristol Museum

Banksy exhibition in Bristol Museum

I just love the humour that you find in Banksy’s work, casting a slightly mocking eye over the ’serious’ art world, like this take on a Damien Hurst spotty picture that’s been rollered over, no doubt by one of those rats from Bristol City Council that are a real Banksy trademark.

There’s the patriotic ‘Best of British’ theme but then you realise that the little girl’s wearing a Flak Jacket and the kitchy Americana to the glory of the aerosol. Children often feature in Banksy’s street art when he uses them with irony to make a political or anti-war message.

Banksy exhibition in Bristol Museum

Banksy exhibition in Bristol Museum

I loved the exhibition when I finally visited and it was worth every minute of the wait and I even had to go around a second time to make sure I had all the pictures. It was also refreshing to be in an art exhibition where you could take as many pictures as you liked, as Banksy’s ethos is that art is for the people.

Take a look at the Banksy Website for more of his work.

Paintings and Poetry at the Khalil Gibran museum in Lebanon

In some ways this story is more about words than pictures, or is it more pictures than words? for it’s about the American-Lebanese poet and painter, Khalil Gibran whose museum and last resting place at Bcharre I visited on my visit to Lebanon.

You may not have heard of Khalil Gibran, but you have probably heard his poetry even though you don’t realise it. It’s that brand of spiritual wisdom that twangs the emotional chords and touches the heart, although the sceptic in you may find it a little cheesy and say ‘is life really so simple?’ Gibran’s most famous work is The Prophet, the story of a wise man about to leave his home country, who before he leaves is asked by his followers to give them the benefit of his wisdom on subjects of life, love, death and everything in between. These qotations from The Prophet will give you the flavour.

On marriage;

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

I visited the museum with a friend on our mini road trip around Lebanon, having driven north from Beirut, inland through the Quadisha valley and up towards the high pass over the Mt Lebanon. We stopped at Bcharre, high up on the side of a valley with fantastic views. With roses blooming on the terrace of the museum, it was easy to see why Khalil Gibran chose to return to Lebanon after emigrating as a child to America and requested this former monastery as his final resting place.

Khalil Gibran on children from the Prophet;

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

The museum brings home that Gibran was as much a painter as a writer and poet and he studied art in Paris in 1908 under Auguste Rodin. At the museum you’ll find a large collection of Gibran’s paintings and drawings housed in a series of small gallery rooms that lead from one to another on different levels until you reach the former monastery chapel where Gibran’s casket was placed along with some of his favourite posessions. There’s also a small shop on the way out to buy postcards and books about Khalil Gibran’s work.

khalil Gibran on joy and sorrow from The Prophet;

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain

Khalil Gibran museum at Bchare in Lebanon

The Khalil Gibran museum in Lebanon

After our visit to the Museum, my friend and I had lunch at a cafe beneath a waterfall overlooking the valley then continued on our way over the snowline on Mt Lebanon and down into the Bekaa valley beyond. If you enjoy the poetry of the Prophet and want to read more of the wisdom you can find it here.

Do tell me whether you find Khalil Gibran’s poetry cheesy or heart warming?

This article is posted as part of Photo Friday over at Delicious Baby - head over to see all the other Friday photos.

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