At 68, potter Salvatore Oliveri came out of retirement to open his pottery school. This profession of turner, which he has practiced since the age of 16 in Vallauris, he has never abandoned. “I learned this trade from my father who was an experienced potter and I practiced it with passion until 2007”, Explain Salvatore.
In his workshop dedicated to tableware and located at 42, boulevard Jacques-Ugo, the potter has created with his hands for decades plates, tea and coffee services, pitchers, salad bowls and wine bricks, decorated in the style Provençal and in that of earthenware from Moustiers.
At a time when he could aspire to a well-deserved rest, his love for the land was strongest. “I taught at the school of clay arts in Grandjean which is so successful that many candidates for this practice of leisure pottery stay aside for lack of space, continues Salvatore. I said to myself then that I had to put my experience and my know-how at the disposal of everyone and I was lucky that my old workshop where I worked for thirty years is again available for rent. . So I decided to open my own school to do the work of transmission.”
It is also today that Salvatore’s workshop-school will be inaugurated, at 11:30 am.
A job or a hobby?
The master has installed several towers there and even trains his students there in the delicate technique of making vases or jars using rope.
“This knowledge and this tradition must be perpetuated and there is nothing more wonderful than creating objects with your hands from a block of clay. It’s a job but it’s also a wonderful hobby. “, explains this master of the earth who can be proud of having made the aura of Vallaurian pottery shine. This by winning, last year, in pairs with the young potter Tino Aïello, the French championship of turners.
So the next edition will be organized in the city of the Potters on July 22 and 23 on the Place de l’Homme-au-Mouton. Make a date!