Watched the whole documentary and thought it was written and shot very well. Thank you for preserving a piece of human history that this family lost. I’m sure generations will thank you.
One of the best documentaries I've ever seen, partly because it was so well done and partly because the subject is endlessly fascinating. Oro. Puro oro!
I'd love to be able to be a student of those men, just to experience their skill and pride in the tradition. It will be a enriching of the soul. They deserve a lot of respect.
This video is a treasure, with it's history of minerals, the wonderful 'sloppy' but super skilled in fact potters, the Japanese master potters would appreciate this looseness and way of making I'm sure. Thank you Mathew for saving this with your wonderful film.
Of course it was wonderful to touch all the bases of such a rich, local tradition but the part that struck me the most, was the level of determination they expressed for preserving their culture.
I really liked this documentary. I enjoyed watching the entire ceramic process from beginning to end. My only regret was not having visited Nijar, since I lived in Spain for 2 years. I love hearing about these human trades, which in the age of industrial technology this humana connection to trades has definitely been lost. Great video!
Wonderful. Very interesting and yet sad that it's a disappearing craft. I liked how the dog was hanging out, helping with the family. Haha. But thank you. I enjoyed it very much.
l love the film. First - because it presents thr area, it's history, geography and the origins of the materials used by the potters. Next - because it explains much about the technique of pottery making and decorating. That's why it is just useful if you want to make pottery.. I'd love to watch them make "bidones" in real and learn from these men.. Muchas gracias por este video:)
What a wonderful doco on a craft sadly going but there maybe some light at the end of the kiln ,if tourists still look in those ancient places for crafts that need to be never forgotten , long live you wonderful craftspeople !
These men need to understand something: if they asked on the internets, if they got the word out to local kids/teens they would find those who would love to learn but they wish their kids want to learn. Well, that' tradition of carrying a paren't trade is what's dead. Teach those who wish to learn and it won't die. They are being stubborn in an old mindset. The world has changed many times over since they were kids.
The big water pots mentioned in the video (10:50) were unglazed, because in a hot climate the ever so slightly movement of water boubles and water waporating through the walls of an unglazed pot makes the water stay cool.
Actually Cántaros and Botíjos were never glazed, and were just porous enough to allow for the evaporating outside water, serves to cool the water container within.
What a beautiful documentary! It takes us through the whole process, from clay digging, preparing, throwing ,glazing and selling. As this was made in 2002, I hope that this pottery is still a viable concern. I am a potter working in Australia, but come from a Spanish background, and really enjoyed this work. Thank you Matthew Weir1
It would be wise for the Spanish Government and College system to adopt the Nijar potteries and pottery style alive and to maintain it as an industry inside the town and in local colleges where this style could be preserved and advanced with newer techniques of hand thrown pottery that competes with the craft pottery of other countries. It would be a shame to just allow it to fade into antiquity with the last of the practitioners of this ancient pottery and glazing style!
Wow. Really interesting video. And so well done. Really captured the life and production cycle of old fashioned, handmade and hand painted pottery. Well done. Thanks for doing this.
The reason for firing upside down is not really to prevent collection of glaze inside the jar. The reason of firing upside down is to collect the heat during firing like in the traditionally firing of unglazed pots.
fantastic doco - fantastic family - great history with the mines and the clay beginnings - hope someone picks up the mantel and takes it to a new generation - maybe inspired by your good work here on youtube.
Me encanta y conozco algo la cerámica, conocía poco o nada sobre la de Nijar decir que me encanta lo tradicional y autentico, y la cerámica de Nijar lo es. solo objetar al bonito documental que lo menos que podía tener es na traducción o subtitulo del documento en español.
Uma verdadeira obra de arte, mais bonita que as louças japonesas, até esse video nao tinha visto loças mais delicadas e finas. Parabens, lindo trabalho.
Pottery..the most under appreciated art form..please slow your life down and look to study this amazing art form.. these brilliant people work very hard at creation ..search out and fall in love with these objects of beauty.
RAFAEL DE ANDRES GARCIA el esmalte que usan es galena ( plomo puro) muy venenoso mientras se manipula. Si las piezas/se usan para ensaladas que lleven vinagre, también es peligroso y si se ponen al fuego es peor aun .
Very enjoyable and informative. Nice to watch with Google Earth (and Street View) available on an accompanying PC to locate Nijar, Cabo de Gata and surrounding areas mentioned. Also evident are the ancient agricultural terraces derived from Arabic knowledge. The Cocker Spaniel knows more about traditional pottery than most tourists 😅
👍👌👏 Unfortunately exactly like in the Westerwald region in Germany the potterers are a dying out species. Thanks a lot for uploading and sharing. Best regards luck and health.
This is one of my favorite documentaries on youtube. I wonder if it is possible to still visit this pottery or ones like it. I'm bummed they don't see much future in their craft. If they shifted to more of a teaching format, people would come from miles to learn.
this is common around the coast in many parts of the world yes. but this area is rather far from the sea there are no shells. if they used it it was imported
@@jerryduller1 Very glad to find this ... I missed Issac Botton and Harold Thorburn by a few years /. I got to see two generations of Jenkins at Ewenny, Frank Parsley at Branham's Mr Harris at Farnham and George Curtis at Littlethorpe .What a trade to live a life in ... I am at the wheel since 1966 !!!
The incised and coloured designs remind me slightly of some 14th and 15th century European decorated pottery - sorry I don't remember the name for the typology
40:00 is he really walking on top of the clay oven? I mean, it must have happened that the roof of one of them things collapsed under the heat and cold fluctuations
Oh My Goodness!!!! Ok......ok, ok..... click the English caption option. Prepare to laugh your arse off!! The translation is based on sound, so when someone is speaking a language other than english, the system works on the sounds of the other language. During the mid-to-late 8 minute mark my eyes were wide as dish plates at how insane the translation was!! So funny!!
If that statement is accurate, it's sad news indeed. 😔 _So_ damned difficult to keep the old crafts alive in today's high-tech world of catering to convenience & automated mass production...
Interesting documentary. The technique is too rough and primitive for me. I would prefer to spend more money and purchase something that is more delicate, beautiful and carefully turned.
Poor quality and design it deserves to go into the past. I am disgusted that the potter stacking spacers causing defects and they continued without looking for a better way to improve quality, if that happens throw out tradition because it is not working and find a better way. Sanding the bottom would have improved some of the pieces, as in the one placed on the counter that wobbled. I would have felt ill to put a piece out like that for sale and let people know my hands were responsible for its existence.
I have no problem with good traditions, but poor quality traditions never. These were sad they had a look of beginner pieces and since they are not selling is proof that these are sad.
if you had watched, they had a profitable business wholesale. these pots were amazing. the men are amazing. you aren't a potter you don't know....but those "defects" poor quality, is a traditional making method thousands of years old. Potters live in tradition and by it. to add and to change. just as they said at the end. I am a full time potter and teacher (70+ hours a week in a ceramics studio) trust me when i say this men aren't throwing beginner pots.
There is something in what you say, though you are too ferocious about it. However they are excellent throwers, and no "beginners" , and anyway, beginners often make charming pots which have lots of life. Infusing the clay with life is my idea of the potters´mission: there are some deadly perfect pots out there.. You also have to take into account that in Arab culture, of which this is a continuation (see pots in Almería museum, pots from Pechina 10th C AD), only God is perfect. The other factor is price. These people and their fathers made pots to avoid starvation, in the disastrous postwar economy of Franco, They were competing with plastic- though there wasn´t much of that as it had to be imported and there was no foreign currency to import with. Matthew Weir
Watched the whole documentary and thought it was written and shot very well. Thank you for preserving a piece of human history that this family lost. I’m sure generations will thank you.
Thank you
One of the best documentaries I've ever seen, partly because it was so well done and partly because the subject is endlessly fascinating. Oro. Puro oro!
I'd love to be able to be a student of those men, just to experience their skill and pride in the tradition. It will be a enriching of the soul. They deserve a lot of respect.
Good evening from Auckland, New Zealand ... 🙂🙂🙂
This video is a treasure, with it's history of minerals, the wonderful 'sloppy' but super skilled in fact potters, the Japanese master potters would appreciate this looseness and way of making I'm sure. Thank you Mathew for saving this with your wonderful film.
Of course it was wonderful to touch all the bases of such a rich, local tradition but the part that struck me the most, was the level of determination they expressed for preserving their culture.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful story with us !
Wonderful video. Thank you
Thank you
I really liked this documentary. I enjoyed watching the entire ceramic process from beginning to end. My only regret was not having visited Nijar, since I lived in Spain for 2 years. I love hearing about these human trades, which in the age of industrial technology this humana connection to trades has definitely been lost. Great video!
Wonderful documentary. Wonderful.
I visited Spain and Mijas. I fell in love with all of it. Breathtaking.
Wonderful. Very interesting and yet sad that it's a disappearing craft. I liked how the dog was hanging out, helping with the family. Haha. But thank you. I enjoyed it very much.
Great film - very enjoyable, and simultaneously reminiscent to, but also unique in comparison to other European towns.
Fascinating long video, I watched it all and am glad I did take the time to learn a bit of history of "hand thrown" pottery. Thank you for posting :)
l love the film. First - because it presents thr area, it's history, geography and the origins of the materials used by the potters. Next - because it explains much about the technique of pottery making and decorating. That's why it is just useful if you want to make pottery.. I'd love to watch them make "bidones" in real and learn from these men.. Muchas gracias por este video:)
What a wonderful doco on a craft sadly going but there maybe some light at the end of the kiln ,if tourists still look in those ancient places for crafts that need to be never forgotten , long live you wonderful craftspeople !
what a great film. thankyou
A gem of a video - so glad I found it!
The introduction worried me a bit, but I stayed with it and found this documentary to be very well done.
¡Una película muy bonita! Gracias!
well done, thank you !
Amazing docu thanks;
These men need to understand something: if they asked on the internets, if they got the word out to local kids/teens they would find those who would love to learn but they wish their kids want to learn. Well, that' tradition of carrying a paren't trade is what's dead. Teach those who wish to learn and it won't die. They are being stubborn in an old mindset. The world has changed many times over since they were kids.
J
من استاد سفالگر هستم از ایران دوست دارم برم به کشور های دیگه و این صنعت را آموزش دهم
The big water pots mentioned in the video (10:50) were unglazed, because in a hot climate the ever so slightly movement of water boubles and water waporating through the walls of an unglazed pot makes the water stay cool.
That's right. I've decided to go natural and use this tradition and abandon refrigerators
Actually Cántaros and Botíjos were never glazed, and were just porous enough to allow for the evaporating outside water, serves to cool the water container within.
This is the true way to live. Thank you very interesting.
What a beautiful documentary! It takes us through the whole process, from clay digging, preparing, throwing ,glazing and selling. As this was made in 2002, I hope that this pottery is still a viable concern. I am a potter working in Australia, but come from a Spanish background, and really enjoyed this work. Thank you Matthew Weir1
سلام مگر در استرالیا سفالگری هست لطفا جواب بدهید
A lovely video. Calm, clear and detailed, causing appreciation for the lifestyle and commitment of these native potters. Beautiful wares.
Really interesting. Thank you.
It would be wise for the Spanish Government and College system to adopt the Nijar potteries and pottery style alive and to maintain it as an industry inside the town and in local colleges where this style could be preserved and advanced with newer techniques of hand thrown pottery that competes with the craft pottery of other countries. It would be a shame to just allow it to fade into antiquity with the last of the practitioners of this ancient pottery and glazing style!
This is my third time watching this video, I feel like I learn something new each time. Great video.....
Wonderful!
Wow. Really interesting video. And so well done. Really captured the life and production cycle of old fashioned, handmade and hand painted pottery. Well done. Thanks for doing this.
Fascinating!
Hermoso oficio!
Gracias por compartir
The reason for firing upside down is not really to prevent collection of glaze inside the jar. The reason of firing upside down is to collect the heat during firing like in the traditionally firing of unglazed pots.
Очень хороший, душевный фильм. Спасибо !
Excellent information
fantastic doco - fantastic family - great history with the mines and the clay beginnings - hope someone picks up the mantel and takes it to a new generation - maybe inspired by your good work here on youtube.
Me encanta y conozco algo la cerámica, conocía poco o nada sobre la de Nijar decir que me encanta lo tradicional y autentico, y la cerámica de Nijar lo es. solo objetar al bonito documental que lo menos que podía tener es na traducción o subtitulo del documento en español.
Hola Joaquin, hay una versión en español aquí ... ruclips.net/video/9cP69zZgLfA/видео.html
Uma verdadeira obra de arte, mais bonita que as louças japonesas, até esse video nao tinha visto loças mais delicadas e finas. Parabens, lindo trabalho.
great work
Pottery..the most under appreciated art form..please slow your life down and look to study this amazing art form.. these brilliant people work very hard at creation ..search out and fall in love with these objects of beauty.
That was truly wonderful, a very informative video, about the history of pottery, the techniques, and about the people as well. I loved it.
Maya Victorin
Maya Victorine k
Very informative video.
Fantástico trabalho.
Verdadeiro artesão que sabe tratar o barro por tu ❤
Very interesting, thanks
Una maravilla, muy informativo y sobre todo un gran quitamiedos sobre los peligros de los esmaltes.
RAFAEL DE ANDRES GARCIA el esmalte que usan es galena ( plomo puro) muy venenoso mientras se manipula. Si las piezas/se usan para ensaladas que lleven vinagre, también es peligroso y si se ponen al fuego es peor aun .
wonderful.
Nice. Thanks
AMAZING
LOVED IT
Thanks for this. Very interesting but sad to think that this will soon die out.
Wonderful documentary. I hope it's safely archived for the future generations. I am wondering how everyone in Nijar is now.
Woody was a great little dawg. 🐶🐶🐶😁😁😁👍👍👍
Sehr gut
Very enjoyable and informative. Nice to watch with Google Earth (and Street View) available on an accompanying PC to locate Nijar, Cabo de Gata and surrounding areas mentioned. Also evident are the ancient agricultural terraces derived from Arabic knowledge. The Cocker Spaniel knows more about traditional pottery than most tourists 😅
👍👌👏
Unfortunately exactly like in the Westerwald region in Germany the potterers are a dying out species. Thanks a lot for uploading and sharing. Best regards luck and health.
Only God could tell how many times the bucolic peace of that village was broken by war, notice the cube bayonet on the upper right side @35:12
Nice
This is one of my favorite documentaries on youtube. I wonder if it is possible to still visit this pottery or ones like it. I'm bummed they don't see much future in their craft. If they shifted to more of a teaching format, people would come from miles to learn.
Sorry Andrew that particular pottery doesn't exist anymore. The other two that were featured less in the film are still working I think.
I'd pay good money for a feature length cartoon film of Woody, the Potter's Dog.
Se trata de la localidad de Níjar, en Almería.
i want one of everthing
So far as history states, Hannibal was born in Carthage (Modern day Tunis) and not Cartagena (Spain).
is there a date of when this was produced?
Wow
Worth visiting. Which village?
Pots are fired in kiln, not oven.
رائع
Didn't the old way use sea shells to separate the pots? Then the shell design was left and was also desirable.
this is common around the coast in many parts of the world yes. but this area is rather far from the sea there are no shells. if they used it it was imported
Really interesting- thank you! I am wondering if this pottery is still working? ( I am watching this four years after the film was made).
sorry but the pottery closed down some years ago. We made the video in 2001.
Jerry Duller That's a real shame, but at least this film is available for reference. Thank you for making it.
@@jerryduller1 Very glad to find this ... I missed Issac Botton and Harold Thorburn by a few years /. I got to see two generations of Jenkins at Ewenny, Frank Parsley at Branham's Mr Harris at Farnham and George Curtis at Littlethorpe .What a trade to live a life in ... I am at the wheel since 1966 !!!
34:00 это называется "где родился, там и пригодился"
The incised and coloured designs remind me slightly of some 14th and 15th century European decorated pottery - sorry I don't remember the name for the typology
sir mujhe sab samjh me aa gaya par aap ne jo rang kiya vah kon sa rang h vo mujhe bata do
aap kis rang ka jikr kar rahe hain?
sir me prajapat hu or me mitti ke bartano ka plant lagana chata hu so plz help me sir muje sahayata kare
sir mujhe aap se sikhna h ye kam
mujhe khed hai, main ek nirmaata hoon, kumhaar nahin. main philm banaate
samay seekha hai, main bartanon ke baare mein aur nahin jaanata hoon.
Fascinating. Unfortunately though, lead glazes belong in the past. Traditional materials may be attractive, but poisonous.
(In Spanish) "I was inspired to try this by watching that Primitive Technology guy on RUclips".
いいね〜
ありがとう
40:00 is he really walking on top of the clay oven? I mean, it must have happened that the roof of one of them things collapsed under the heat and cold fluctuations
Oh
My
Goodness!!!!
Ok......ok, ok..... click the English caption option. Prepare to laugh your arse off!!
The translation is based on sound, so when someone is speaking a language other than english, the system works on the sounds of the other language. During the mid-to-late 8 minute mark my eyes were wide as dish plates at how insane the translation was!!
So funny!!
Very nice video. I'd still worry about eating off those lead plates, though.
Amazing. Human history. Are they still there?
Unfortunately the pottery is gone.
@@jerryduller1 That is a pity! Lost heritage not just to Spain but to whole world
Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore come to mind.
2002 + 8 years. They stopped making them in 2010…? :(
If that statement is accurate, it's sad news indeed. 😔 _So_ damned difficult to keep the old crafts alive in today's high-tech world of catering to convenience & automated mass production...
kaolin is a clay - i think you meant if kaolin was a glaze
Ahhh so beautiful how Arabs have made the world a better place.
Bizarre?
if you watch until the end it will be explained.
@@jerryduller1 I did.
Lead glazes are a no no for functional pottery to be used with food/drink.
I do not think still working
Not for at least ten years I think
It didn't work.
Interesting documentary. The technique is too rough and primitive for me. I would prefer to spend more money and purchase something that is more delicate, beautiful and carefully turned.
Lead glaze? Yikes! I wouldn't eat or drink anything that was sitting on that pottery. Bright colors or not, it's not worth getting lead poison.
Gee, do you think that the narrator can comb his hair for once? He looks like he just rolled out of bed!
I think he blends in very well with the other characters.
Poor quality and design it deserves to go into the past. I am disgusted that the potter stacking spacers causing defects and they continued without looking for a better way to improve quality, if that happens throw out tradition because it is not working and find a better way. Sanding the bottom would have improved some of the pieces, as in the one placed on the counter that wobbled. I would have felt ill to put a piece out like that for sale and let people know my hands were responsible for its existence.
To each their own. Personally, I'm glad they keep the tradition alive. If anything, take it as a live history lesson.
I have no problem with good traditions, but poor quality traditions never. These were sad they had a look of beginner pieces and since they are not selling is proof that these are sad.
if you had watched, they had a profitable business wholesale. these pots were amazing. the men are amazing. you aren't a potter you don't know....but those "defects" poor quality, is a traditional making method thousands of years old. Potters live in tradition and by it. to add and to change. just as they said at the end. I am a full time potter and teacher (70+ hours a week in a ceramics studio) trust me when i say this men aren't throwing beginner pots.
There is something in what you say, though you are too ferocious about it. However they are excellent throwers, and no "beginners" , and anyway, beginners often make charming pots which have lots of life. Infusing the clay with life is my idea of the potters´mission: there are some deadly perfect pots out there..
You also have to take into account that in Arab culture, of which this is a continuation (see pots in Almería museum, pots from Pechina 10th C AD), only God is perfect.
The other factor is price. These people and their fathers made pots to avoid starvation, in the disastrous postwar economy of Franco, They were competing with plastic- though there wasn´t much of that as it had to be imported and there was no foreign currency to import with.
Matthew Weir
I hope nobody ever tries to sell you anything handmade. You obviously don't appreciate handcrafts.
Nice