El Carmen de Viboral-City of Ceramics

January 25, 2016

I discovered pottery that came from El Carmen de Viboral when I visited the Museo de Antioquia in Medellin. I decided I wanted to go there, and luckily it was only a two hour bus ride away.

The pottery display that started it all

I hopped off the bus once I figured out I was in the town, if not quite the center, and found a beautiful cemetary.

Instead of graves in the ground, there were walls of boxes for the deceased.

On the back of the walls they were sealed with metal plaques

Many were recent, some went back to the 80s.  Some of the older ones had little shrines on the front.

I  thought it was a lovely effect, though it was a different sort of cemetary than I'm used to.

Walking all the way into the center of town, I found the main plaza, which elicited an audible gasp when I first turned the corner.

The obelisk was beautiful, made up of thousands of little tile pieces, all watercolored together.

And very quickly it was apparent that El Carmen was known for pottery, as it was everywhere.

On the light posts.

On the streets.

On the walls.

On the benches.

The heliconia one was my favorite

I was rather taken by the tiling done on this street, each building had tiled plants growing from the ground to the roof.  The palm was my favorite.

I had some lunch, (then got ice cream) then went pottery shopping to find some pieces with the wonderful designs that had drawn me here in the first place.

At Cerámicas Renacer, I was even allowed to go upstairs to see where the painting happened.  It was like the paint your own pottery places I've been to, but way larger scale and they were better than me.

Each station was painting a different design or color scheme.

I guess when you make one design all day you get pretty good at it.  It was fun to watch the designs being created, all done rapidly and with precision.  I bought myself a bowl and a plate for about $4 total.

This was another favorite pattern at a different store, less traditional but still lovely.

It was a wonderful sunny day exploring a new little town.

Also, side note.  These.

Egg holders, a concept that just doesn't even exist in the States, since we keep our eggs in the fridge.  Here, where theyre not refridgerated, holders like this are common. Another interesting cultural difference.