The magic of Troyan ceramics

Pottery is one of the earliest crafts in the world. Ceramic pots date back to the end of the Stone Age. In the Balkans this was the time from 6000 to 4000 years BC that saw the transition to permanent habitation. The pottery making technology was quite familiar to the ancient Balkan peoples. Fictile articles had a role to play in wedding and funeral rituals, as well as in the daily motions. The ancient Thracians who used to live in what is Bulgaria today, replaced the manual pottery making with the pottery wheel in 7-6 c. BC. Given brisk trade and cultural contacts with classical Hellas, Thracian pottery displayed some influences from the Hellenic masters. With the migration of the Slavs and Proto-Bulgarians to the Balkans, the legacy of the Thracian pottery was diversified. In the late 9 and early 10 c. AD the Bulgarian school of pottery emerged.

Close to two centuries after the Bulgarian state in the Balkans was founded in 681, skilled potters in the capital of Veliki Preslav became famous for their decorative ceramics. Their articles are impressive with the techniques used and their style of decoration placing among the best medieval fictile masterpieces. In 12-14 c. ceramic art in Bulgaria developed even faster. Some of its characteristics include floral elements, geometric shapes while the depiction of animal and human figures was rare. Color-wise, the green, yellow, ochre and brown hints dominate. During the first centuries of Ottoman rule, pottery faced a major decline in the Bulgarian lands. Starting in 17 c. however, it began to recover and develop anew. In 1911 a ceramic school opened doors in the town of Troyan, Central Northern Bulgaria, today Prof. Venko Kolev National High School of Applied Art. Its principal Dr. Iliyan Iliev tells us how the school succeeds in upgrading the Bulgarian traditions in the art of ceramics.

“The advantage of this kind of schools is that our graduates are professionally fit to begin a career in pottery. Of course, many of them continue their studies in universities. Here, in the course of five years, their training provides them with both the theory and the practical skills to be able to start a career in applied art at once. The pupils trained in traditional pottery have the best career prospects. Eve today, amid the reality of an economic crisis, they have been successful selling their works; have opened factories and hired workers. Our graduates in graphic design too receive all that is necessary to start work at once in any graphic or designer studio.”

Troyan is unique across Bulgaria in providing schooling in the art of pottery at the level of secondary school. The town has rich clay deposits needed for good quality ceramics. Tio make them, a foot powered pottery wheel is used, and after that the pots are fired in special furnaces. Decoration is concurrent with the function and the shape. The most common is the household pottery: plates, cups, pots, vases etc. It tends to be simpler and is more pragmatic compared to the celebrated ceramics from the Second Bulgarian Kingdom that included items used by the tsar and his boyars alone, Dr. Iliev explains. However, this simple pottery with its ornaments mirrors the way average Bulgarians perceived the craft. One typical detail is the Troyan drop-shaped pattern.

Almost every Bulgarian home has a few fictile pots for making and serving food. Apart from their utilitarian function they bring a touch of warmth and snugness to home interiors. Taverns offering traditional Bulgarian food serve in Troyan-styled cups and plates. Beyond that however pottery is an art ranked side by side sculpture and painting.

“We appear at plein airs, take part in symposia and exhibitions at both the national and international levels”, the principal of the Troyan school goes on to say. “This year we are looking forward to a visit from our Greek colleagues from Patra where we had a successful display last year. Art has the privilege of being universal, of transcending national borders without the use of speech. What matters is the creative power of the messages conveyed through the art of ceramics.”

Pupils from allover Bulgaria enroll for study at the Prof. Venko Kolev National High School of Applied Art in Troyan. Its principal says that interest in pottery has never weakened. It is the place for teenagers who do not easily fit into the matrix of mass schools, Mr. Iliev explains. Here they can find an auspicious environment for the growth of their personality.

Apart from pottery workshops scattered across Bulgaria, potters also display their talent and skills at various forums. Every year the Architectural and Ethnographic Complex Etar near the town of Gabrovo, Central Bulgaria, hosts the International Fair of Traditional Crafts where potters and masters of other crafts not only display their works but demonstrate a range of authentic techniques.

Translated by Daniela Konstantinova

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The magic of Troyan ceramics

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