This past weekend we flew south to visit the islands of Santorini and Crete. While the archeological sites of Akrotiri, Thera, and Knossos were inspiring, my favorite part was undoubtedly our trip to the pottery village of Margarites. In contrast to Santorini’s dry, sparse, and seemingly uninhabitable landscape, the drive to Margarites was rainy and the hills we drove through were lush and green. The road we took gave us a view of both the coast and the mountains, making the trip itself enchanting even before arriving in the quaint town.
After disembarking, we made a dash through the rain toward the pottery studio, Kerameion, where the co-owner and potter Giorgis Dalamvelas gave us a demonstration of techniques passed down from his father that have been used in the village for hundreds of years. While the wheel spun and he easily shaped the clay under his hands, Giorgis told us about how the special, local clay and practices are kept alive by only a handful of potters– most people nowadays use commercial clay exclusively. To make their traditional wares, Giorgis uses Cretan earth and “lepida” (a special potter’s earth), a combination that creates a clay that doesn’t need to be glazed and is fired only once.
Leading us around the intimate studio and shop, he went into detail about the different shapes wares have, depending on their purpose. For example, he showed us a honey pot that had a shallow well encircling it near its neck, which he explained people would fill with water or ash in order to deter ants. We looked at small, round wares with holes in their centers that were used historically for ink, but can be used for spices or as salt and pepper shakers. These were special because if they fell over, thanks to the placement of the hole in the middle and the shape of the vessel, they wouldn’t spill. In order to get salt and pepper out of them, one can shake them (with the hole angled down) and you can alter the grip to make more or less come out. Another fun vessel looked like a small pitcher, but Giorgis revealed that it was a water whistle that produced a bird call, and the pitch changed depending on how much water he added.
He also showed us a cup that, if someone were greedy and filled it past a certain point, would drain itself completely. Grabbing a cross-section to show us the inner workings of the cup, Giorgis revealed that it had a siphon under the rod in the center of the cup that accomplished this feat via suction. Another vessel that was similarly deceiving was a pitcher whose neck was of holes. Giorgis told us only one hole needed to be covered in order to be able to drink from it, and asked us which one. When we were stumped, he revealed that there was a hole carved out of handle of the vessel that, if covered, created a straw that one could drink out of without the liquid touching any of the other holes and spilling.
Beyond the delightful demonstration, exploring the rest of the town proved it to be charming – if slightly damp – and we even saw a gecko on the wall of the local school!
