Bolesławiec, Poland: pottery shopping

On a recent trip to Boleslawiec, Poland with the spouses' club, we visited a bunch of pottery shops! While I am not a huge fan of Polish pottery (blue is just not my color), I was intrigued to see the many patterns and find out what all the hype is about. 

At one of our stops, we had the pleasure of seeing behind the scenes for a little tour. Ceramika Andar showed us the process, starting with the big slabs of clay they begin their work with. They use the clay to make slip (a watered down clay) to use in slip-casting their mugs, plates and other pieces. 

We walked through the drying room where pieces are drying out in anticipation of their bisque firing prior to being glazed. 

The ladies were hard at work getting the pieces cleaned up so they would be ready for the kiln. 

One of the ladies in my group took this picture and I just loved the close up of the plaster molds and some of the little creamer jugs. 

This ceramic shop is a family affair. The father, wife, son and daughter all work in the shop. This is the wife. She was hard at work painting Christmas trees. It was really cool to see how quickly she was able to finish each one. 

This was our guide through the workshop. 

Another popular shop in town is Andy Polish Pottery. This was actually our very first stop of our shopping excursion. They had a wide selection of pieces. I picked up some Jack o' Lanterns, Christmas ornament and little sleeping kitty figurine here. 

This is a small snapshot of the selection at Andy's. In addition to this, there was a whole other room filled with pieces. 

Southern Sicily

As a belated birthday celebration, we jetted off to southern Sicily for several nights. My interest in Sicily was twofold: 1) ancestors on my Dad's side were from Sicily (although it was a different part of the island than we visited) and 2) I wanted to visit somewhere sunny and warmer than Germany. 

We flew into Catania which is on the eastern side of the island. After picking up our rental car, we drove down to Syracuse where we had booked an Airbnb that overlooked the harbor. 

On our first full day, we walked around Ortigia which is the island connected to Syracuse by bridges. The views of the waves crashing were just what my heart needed. The day was perfectly sunny and warm. 

One of my goals in visiting Sicily was to eat arancini and cannoli. Check and check. We had arancini almost every day, but I did not have nearly enough cannoli. I would return to Sicily just for the food!

On our second day, we headed inland a bit to Caltagirone. The town is known for their pottery and we booked a pottery class through Airbnb. A master potter, pictured above, demonstrated some of the things they do to make pottery and then we had a chance to play around with clay and make two pieces. 

We each could make a mug/vase/jug using the coiling method and then a face mask. I made a vase, of sorts. The face masks were the silly part of the class. Pictured below is Charles' mask. At a certain point while making mine I came to terms with the fact that it was crazy and a bit ugly and just embraced it. 

For a few extra Euros, the shop will fire and glaze our pieces and ship them to us. The first firing takes two days, so there was no chance that they would be ready in time for our departure. I am looking forward to seeing the finished pieces!

Caltagirone has this long staircase in the center of town with each step featuring beautifully decorated tiles. 

Mt Etna is a dominating part of the landscape in southern Sicily and here you can see it from a park in Caltagirone.

You cannot visit Italy and not have a cappuccino for breakfast at least once!

Another excursion we took was to a nearby town--Noto. Noto is known for its Baroque architecture. We visited during reposo, the Italian version of a siesta, so it was quiet and sleepy. 

On Ortigia, you can see the ruins of the temple of Apollo. When we walked by one evening we saw this group of kitties hanging out on one of the columns. We actually saw stray cats in several areas of Syracuse and Caltagirone. 

On our evening stroll the day before departing, we could see Mt Etna smoking in the distance. It is hard to see in the picture, but it was neat to see in person. In this picture you can also see the steeple of one of Syracuses' churches that was constructed in the 60's which explains the style. 

Walking along the coastline was one of my favorite things and I wish I could have done more of it!