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What is faience?Faience is tin-glazed earthenware, made in France, Germany, Spain and Scandinavia. Some of the most famous faience came from the town of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, in Haute-Provence.The designs that were produced in Moustiers in the 17th and 18th centuries were very distinctive, and their influence spread to other French centers.
Grenoble and La TroncheDuring the 18th to the 19th centuries, there were two main centers for the production of faienceware in the Grenoble region: Très-Cloitres, and La Tronche. Both centers were influenced by the style of Moustiers, but also by other styles; the workshop at La Tronche was started in 1750 by Claude Potié, who originally came from Nevers, another big faience center. The workshop of Très-Cloitres was founded in 1735 by two artisans from Moustiers. The Grenoble style contains several well-known motifs that can be seen in Moustiers faience, but includes designs that are unknown elsewhere, such as The Woodcutter ("le bucheron") and the Rose of Grenoble.Grenoble faience designs are more stylised and slender than those from Moustiers, which are much more compact. The Musée Daphinoise of Grenoble has an extensive collection of local faience work. Little by little, the tradition and art of faience-making were forgotten in Grenoble... until in 1985, Valèrie Le Métayer opened her workshop in Ile Verte.
Producing faienceTraditionally, all faience-work is done by hand, from the modelling of the clay through the glazing and painting of the designs, to the final firing in a kiln. The designs are all painted by hand: twenty minutes work for the most simple designs, many hours for the more intricate pieces.There is no room for error; a mistake with the brush on unfired glaze cannot be corrected. It is a true work of art demanding concentration, precision and patience. |
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