Oct 20 Day 16 Deruta

Deruta is the famous town in Umbria for its ceramics, getting its start from the clay deposits from the natural river valleys and gullies in the area.  In addition to housing many ceramics studios and galleries, the town has an interesting ceramics museum.  Even the local church altars have tiles from the town, showing religious figures and stories, and they are truly beautiful.  The art there dates back to the 4th century BC and you can see the development of the colors in the ceramics over the centuries. Early ceramics show just greens and browns, then blues, yellows, reds, etc were added.  Even scenes and subject matter changed over the years.

The owners of the first studio-store that we visited were extremely friendly and the mother took us on a tour where everyone was eager to show off artistic skills.  This is, obviously, a potter, and it took him all of about 60 seconds to make a beautiful vase!

Plates such as the one below are seen both in the museum as well as the stores.  It was a treat to be able to see them and I am happy to be able to bring some of the ceramics home - but I may need a new suitcase.