English
Deutsch
Pottery in the life of the brothers
of the Taizé Community
About ninety brothers from thirty different countries live in the Taizé Community. An essential part of the life of the community is the pottery workshop in Taizé. This explains why certain things are done this way and not another. The brothers are first and foremost neither artists nor simple workers. They are brothers who have made a spiritual commitment to life. At the same time, they live steps of concrete solidarity - on the ground in Taizé with thousands of young adults from all over the world, and also in other places around the world.
It all began in the winter of 1949, when a pottery was
created in Taizé, almost exclusively hand-turned. One focus was the development
of glazes, which at first consisted primarily of plant ash.
Although the number of brothers has steadily increased, the
community still makes its living exclusively from the proceeds of its own work.
However, for most of the brothers, the work in the pottery workshop is not the
only task in their common commitment and life in the community.
All of the pottery made in the workshop is available for
sale in the Taizé Community's "Exposition. Taizé itself sells only a few
pieces of its pottery through its own web store (https://shop.taize.fr/). The
production of the pottery consists of simple work processes. Machines are used
for some processes, such as turning in molds, pressing, and casting. The aim is
to produce objects of daily use at affordable prices.
From the beginning, two work processes have always been
maintained. These are the production of the pottery clay from local raw
materials (different clays) and the mixing of the glazes. The glazes are one of
the distinctive features of the Taizé pottery. The kilns of the pottery work
with natural gas.
Source: Taizé
Here you can find the video links of the making of Taizé pottery ceramic items:
The making of a Taizé clay cup?
How to make a Taizé photophore?