The Black Ceramics of Marginea - Home


   

        Marginea Ceramics is already a well-known brand. Historians date the beginning of pottery at Marginea in 1500. Pottery appeared due to the necessity of storing food. The pottery had its role in primitive society development because it made possible the storage of food. Imagine your kitchen without these ordinary objects. Due to its geographical position, Marginea  commune is surrounded by forestes, its soil is argellaceous and it is crossed by the Sucevita river. All these features are fundamental for the  craft born from the magical triangel of clay, water and fire. Before the communist oppression in Marginea there were at least 60 families of potters as declared an old potter who reached Munich to present his craft.
        During communism, having a pottery wheel was considered to be a felony and many potters had to hide to practice the craft. Later on, many communists tried to take advantage of this craft in order to make it popular and corporatist. The great error was that they had implemented the electric wheel to this exclusively manual craft. Our family still preserves tradition and all the steps of manual production.

Marginea Black Ceramics- a Dacian heritage
        For the history and beauty-lover, tracing back this craft in time and space may be extremely pleasurable. Black Ceramics is a proof of the Dacian origin. It is only to be found in Marginea pottery work-shops, in Suceava county..

        After it is moulded, the vessel follows the same thousand year-old track, burned in pits of 1.5 m shaped like an upside down cone. Nearby another smaller pit was dug which had a tunnel to the first pit where the fire was lit. The fire made the vessels turn red. They were covered by a thick and hummed bed of clay, covering the tunnel between the two pits. Even if without oxygen the process continued and the vessels turned grey or black..
        The technique is still kept today, bearing some changes: the soil is brought by the potter from the village border and the vessels are burned in ovens, closed at the top and in the front. Fir wood support the workshop’s walls. As well as the Dacians, the craftsman moulds the clay barehanded, after the water has melted it. Then he picks a dirt ball, puts it in the wheel and starts to transform it until in the eyes of the craftsman ne can see the satisfaction of a well-done thing..

        The shapes of the vessels go back to ancient times: the high pot, the pot with two ears, bowls of different sizes and pots with gloves. The decorating technique is the traditional one: the pots are shinned by a special stone; the grey prints on the pot will mix with the metallic black while the pot is burned.

        To this technique, another one is added, geometrical shapes:  scrolls, lines, fir branches. The craftsmen here are both traditional and open to new. A small number of people still make pots as they ancestors used to.