Saturday, April 27, 2013

Erlenbacher Pottery




A pottery party for Baby A



April was indeed the month for parties. It's back to Baby A. Like last year, this party was again planned around "craft". However, unlike last year, we decided to partly outsource the "craft" part to a professional potter. :-)

Frau Hartwig and her husband run a charming little pottery art center, called Töpfereiwerkstatt Erlenbach in the middle of Odenwald. First, a bit of geography lesson. The Odenwald is shared by three states. This patch of beautiful woodlands and some parts even of geographical wonder lies snugly between Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. To be more exact, Wiki will tell you that "the northern and western Odenwald belong to southern Hesse, with the south stretching into Baden. In the northeast, a small part lies in Lower Franconia in Bavaria." And if you are even more interested in some unnecessary details, Wiki goes on to describe it as "the Odenwald lies between the Upper Rhine Rift Valley with the Bergstraße and the Hessisches Ried (the northeastern section of the Rhine rift) in the west, the Main and the Bauland (a mostly unwooded area with good soils) in the east, the Hanau-Seligenstadt Basin – a subbasin of the Upper Rhine Rift Valley in the Rhine-Main Lowlands – in the north and the Kraichgau in the south. The part south of the Neckar valley is sometimes called the Kleiner Odenwald (“Little Odenwald”)." But enough of that..

Back to the party/pottery...

Our breakfast set ready for the next phase of
baking and glazing

What a perfect way for kids to have fun when they are allowed to get up to their arms in muck... er.. I mean clay!? :-) For two hours they kneaded, rolled, pounded, cut, brushed, painted and produced beautiful works of art out of boring blocks of clay. Using their creativity, the children each produce a breakfast set comprising of a plate and a mug. Then, the breakfast set will be baked, then glazed, then baked again. All of this to be done by Frau Hartwig later. So there was a waiting time of 3 to 4 weeks, before we could actually see the finished art. It was all very exciting for the children, as the color they have used was not exactly like the end product! For their hard work (sprinkled with laughter.. occasional complain.. and songs) what was better for lunch than fresh baked pizza out of their stone ovens served with fresh crisp lettuce salad?!



Getting cleaned up and ready for lunch

Stairs leading upstairs where lunch was served

3 crows in a row...

Some finished pottery with paint in buckets

Each is individualized, fun and unique! 

In progress for baking, and glazing.

Waiting for a coat of paint.

More pieces of art in the courtyard.
More shapes and colours...
..as a guardian angel..

.. as Art deco for any gardens..

...for livening up any space... 


We ended the day back at home, as presents still needed to be unpack, birthday song still needed to be sung and cake to be eaten. All in, what a wonderful day it had been...


..as statement for any tree..

..or just for a good laugh!



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