These pots are hand thrown in Spain!. Each one is individually made!!! They are not lumps of clay in the shape of pots, they are actually pots, just very very small. To give you a sense of size, you can see a car key in some of the photos. Sorry for the quality of photos. Since Cactus Canyon Ceramics has started to offer ristras of hand thrown, hand painted miniature pots, I have been keeping my eyes open. It just blows me a way that each of these pieces is hand made. I had a chance to visit quite a while one of the factory owners that produces these pieces. The demand for miniature pieces has dropped over the last few years, probably due to the economic crisis in Europe. Still, there are regular customers and some of the most important are wholesalers, stores and booths that provide Christmas Nativity scenes, which is a huge tradition here in Spain (worth a post on this blog in the future).
Christmas and Miniature Pottery
Christmas is almost here! In Seville, Spàin, you know Christmas is near when the booths selling nativity scenes set up. It is quite a tradition in Spain. Much time and effort are expended in the creation of a nativity scene. In each of the booths you will find buildings, trees, colored landscaping saw dust, camels, characters, and all sorts of small props including miniature Spanish pots. You can find tinajas, lebrillos, macetas, orzas and much more. Many of these very small pots are hand made – in the same way that the much larger pots are made. They are hand thrown. In the following photos, you can see the building blocks of a nativity scene – veggies, hams, pots, shovels, trees, bridges, nails, etc. etc. Really look at some of the photos and you will be amazed at what you see. In several photos I put a Euro so that you can understand the size of the items you are looking at. A Euro is the same size as a quarter approximately (maybe a little smaller)
Merry Christmas!