Ceramics workshops

"Here are the texts written by the members of the group that participated in the ceramics workshop."

Margarita Kaynadas - Chela Maria

I'm going to make a moon. The moon I would then make a ship to get in and travel to all the stars. I would wet the ship and make a little kitchen to cook the constellations. I'm breaking the kitchen in two and now I'm making a big table so we can all eat together in the air. I will now make food and put it on the table. I'm going to mix it all together and make a swing so I can go back and forth by the stars and look at them. And when I get tired I'll wet the swing and make a bed to sleep in the clouds.

I'll fix me later. And leave me there forever.

Nikanoras Bilionis

A cow. A bull. A monkey. Something.

I see a machine in the background. The machine is making the cow, the bull and the monkey. Those didn't exist. Now they are. The cow, the bull and the monkey are all brown. My hands are wet. Is it hard or easy? I don't know. With a little help, I can do it myself, but the machine turns and makes a sound.

I hear in my ears a cow, a bull and a monkey. Something. Something else.

I will hide some things in the animals. I think and decide that I will hide a small clay book in there and put a lot of water in it. My animals will be smart and thirsty. A little birdie told me there's a rooster. I haven't seen him yet. I don't know where he's hiding. But he's nowhere, birds lie. But there are flowers here, and they're all orange tulips.

I don't know if I like them, but I watch them.

EVERYTHING

With clay we make pottery.

It has a special texture, nice and soft.

I had already had a fairy in my house for many years that I had made with clay in the past.

It starts as a ball and ends up in various designs. A bowl or a glass.

You put the ball on the wheel.

And you turn him and then you turn him and then you turn him.

At the end you can put in paints, crayons, everything,

whatever your imagination wants to do.

and then you wash your hands.

HARIS

I am clay.

Inorganic mass

a rectangular, solid and liquid, amorphous

I am clay.

A warm, slippery soul and with every turn, it takes shape.

Rough feeling on the hands, before the polish goes on top and softens the texture.

THOMAS

I used to play with the sand in the sea as a child.

I plunged my hands into her, stirred her.

That sense of touching the sand that was constantly transforming,

was gradually becoming a tower, a mermaid or a bridge.

Whatever my imagination wanted to happen was happening.

The sand allowed everything.

Then I discovered that when you don't find sand, you find dirt.

When you don't find the sea, you find water.

When the boundaries of imagination are narrowed,

then comes the clay to expand them again.

Theano Konta

My hands don't have much mobility and I do everything with help. I could live with natural clay. It's simple materials, dirt and water. When it comes to washing hands, the clay stands like powder on them, so I don't want to take it off. It's like a glove that helps you not to slip when you hold it. Clay is a very soft material that you don't want your hands coming out of it. To keep it from drying out, you put water on it. Hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen one, oxygen two, but don't say that because they won't understand. It's magic. You're happier than you've ever been when you catch him. Sure, you get a little piggy, but who cares?

 Athena Sotiroglou - Theano Papavassiliou - Myrto Costa

He has peace of mind. Circles, hands and a calm texture. Machinery calm. I am calm alone. I feel a calm creator. A calm utilitarian creator. Another god, small but important. I have made cups, bowls, musical instruments and I play. I have the quiet power to make whatever I want. And to use them as I please.

My dreams are not like that. Dreams I can't fix. But these?

Making. Painting. I carve. Bake. Rebuild. I enjoy.

He has peace of mind.

Cleo

Dirt is dirt. Water waters the soil and mud is created. From the mud I make a red glass. Into it I put water and drink. The water goes from my mouth to my throat and all over my body like a river, like a sea. The water is white in color.

Alexandra Lucas

Clay is soil. Dirt becomes colour. I hear music. I have the clay in my hand and I'm making a heart. I can write names on it:

Alexandra and Alekos together forever. I'm putting on colors. Pink, orange and green.

I make a leaf with my hands from stones. I make it myself.

Thanos

Freedom is protecting my stuff, listening to music and making my clay pots. It's all connected.

                            Water: drinking water is good for our health.

                            Wind: the wind blows and goes where it wants, I'm blown by the cold.

                            Fire: it is what lights and burns.

                            Earth: it is where we tread the soil.

I work these by hand, the soil becomes mud and sticks if you get it wet. I work it by hand and think about my stuff and how to get it right so I can put it in with my other favorite things later. I love that we used to make them. They came out round and lots of other colorful ones and I followed all the steps in the right order. We made it and painted it with a brush with healthy colors. Yellow and red, I really liked red is the best, my favorite color. That's why I made my vase red, again I would make it red. To love means to make you happy and smart and a better person, love is red. When I make the vase it's like sleeping and I like sleepy, I travel, and I fly fly fly. I finish and put it in the room with others. With tile we make the roof of houses and also vases and I like those the most.

| roof: protection of space | pots: protection of our imagination by making them |

It was very perfect, the clay pots were fine, I don't want anything else but those. Yes

Nikos Kyparissis, Myrto Pnevematakis, Dina Pap., Bruce Willis

For so many years I was unnoticed in nature and my life was quiet. And peaceful. And restful. And relaxing. After a long time the stick I was on was used for a snowman's nose, but I was alone again. Every day I waited for something to happen to get me out of my calm, but the days passed and I remained a lonely piece of dirt waiting for someone to stomp on it. Until one day everything around me changed. I realized that whereas before I was a victim of the elements, now I was surrounded by four walls and a ceiling. My joy no longer had no boundaries. I am here. I am on a plant above, and I look at each day that dawns something different. Tomorrow maybe I'll be under a plant and feel its roots. Will I be all there, or will it be just parts of me? Will the rest of me become smoke in a fireplace? Or a piece of trash in a landfill? But I never imagined I would become a brown pot.

Sofia Bletsou

Drops fall on it and form streams as if the earth is weeping. A mountain of dirt melts softly. It dances with the water. It moulds itself, recreates itself. It pales and shrinks. A glass dances in my hands, a shape that has yet to take form. Between my fingers a dance sneaks in between my fingers. The dance of clay. I blow the clay and make a human form, I extinguish it with water that I extinguish with fire. With fire I now make a stone. All my thoughts freeze and remain immortal painted on a stone. It needs care, care, to touch it gently even though it is a stone. Who said stones don't break?

Clay people

Man is like clay. A clay in a womb. It takes shape, changes shapes, moves up, down, until it finds the position it likes. It moves the dirt in the water like a baby in the fluids of the womb. We are clay too. Hard on the outside and fragile on the inside. A baby is born, an idea is born that will blossom become color and one day become dirt.

Danae Tsorlini

I like it because I can create what I want. I managed to make a vase and a bowl, the ones I use every day. The wheel is movement and speed together, they combine and create something very beautiful. Also you can collaborate, as a team we created a lot of things together. It's so impressive that from two such simple materials you can really make anything you want. In this art there is also colour. You put whatever color you want where you want and you can mix them. You do whatever you want, you're really free.

Maria Dahlythra

Texts on clay.

The water and the soil.

It gives us happiness.

We love it very much.

We will never forget what we make.

You make a hole in the middle.

After the rail.

And finally.

My grandfather used to tell me:

"You can masterfully do whatever you want."

I like to make farms out of clay.

And fill them with lots of little animals.

I want to make things.

And give them away.

To give people happiness and peace.

Water is life.

When I'm moulding the clay, I feel great.

I feel free.