There’s not much better than escaping a cold and dark Canadian winter for sandy beaches of another country. It should almost be a yearly gift from our governement to restore community spirit and sanity. So when the opportunity presented itself to travel to the Dominican with family this year one could hardly pass up the chance. Of course for me no trip is complete without a bit of local culture, cuisine, and what else but some ceramics.

While we were emersed in the generousity of the Dominican people, some of us took a day trip into the Dominican Alps, passing through Santiago where we stopped to visit a local ceramics factory. I of course was the nerd of the group enjoying every second of it. The type of work produced was tourist goods, alot for the local tourist trade as well as some for export. We got to tour around everything from the clay pits to the kilns. Gotta love those huge walk in kilns which dwarf my own tiny electric back home.

The tasks were all divided between men and women, the men doing all the harder labour such as crushing and filtering the clay, throwing the pots and loading the kilns. The women’s roles centered around altering the thrown forms, making attachments and painting or glazing the wares, mind you not many of the pots had glaze, most were painted with acrylic washes as the main product of the buisness was planters and garden pots.

I was practically sitting on my hands not to jump on one of the kick wheels and have a try of the local clay which was a beautiful yellow ochre color and quite plastic. I think I could have been left behind here and lived my life quite happily.

This last picture I love of some of the women working in the painting studio.