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Correspondent of SOYUZ found out the unique secrets of the ancient pottery

To see a real master at the potter's wheel today is a great fortune. There are very few such craftsmen, keepers of the original tradition. One of them, Vitaly Shepelevich, a folk craftsman of Belarus from the small town of Gantsevichi in Polissya, is known by name not only by connoisseurs of fine ceramics and collectors in many countries, but also by housewives who understand a lot about cooking. They know the secret of delicious food: if a dish was cooked in a pot with Shepelevich's personal brand, you can't drag a guest away from the delicacy by the ears. The SOYUZ correspondent took a pottery lesson from the master and found out the secret of making "delicious" pots.

Started in the World

Vitaly never had potters in his family, and as he himself admits, he came to this craft at the call of his heart. After serving in the army, he entered an art school in the town of Mir, from which he graduated in 1997 with a degree in pottery. Then he worked for a year at an art enterprise in the Grodno region and three more - in the Minsk workshop of the famous Belarusian ceramics specialist Ales Kostko.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the novice potter returned to his native Gantsevichi. There were no jobs in his specialty, and he mastered the construction profession. But I was drawn to my favorite work. In 2011, Vitaly registered as an artisan and began to work for himself. The workshop was equipped right on the plot. He started with souvenirs, which he sold at fairs. Then he switched to dishes: pots, jugs, plates. Serious clients soon appeared (cafes, restaurants, specialized stores in the capital and regional centers). Due to the high artistic level and quality, his ceramics were in good demand. In a year, the master sold about a thousand of his ceramic products.

- Recently, the market has been flooded with low-quality ceramics from China and Ukraine, - says Vitaly Shepelevich, habitually rotating the potter's wheel. - And some local unfortunate craftsmen also forge the work of famous potters. Not knowing all the intricacies of technology, their ignorance damages the reputation of the master. One day a woman came up to me at a fair claiming the quality of a pot that unscrupulous sellers told her was supposedly made by me. Looking at it, I immediately saw that it was a fake. This was evidenced by the absence of my brand, and some manufacturing features that are far from traditional.

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- My approach to making ceramics is the same as it was centuries ago, - says the master. - First of all, I select the right clay. It would seem that in Belarus this material is more than enough. But for high-quality ceramics, clay with certain properties is needed, primarily high fire resistance. And this is only in a few places. The best one is in Gorodnaya and Radoshkovichi. That's where I buy it on order. When you already have clay, then you can sit down at the potter's wheel. Usually, it takes me about 20 minutes to mold a small pot or jug ​​on it. Then I send the dishes to the kiln for firing, and then for coloring. To draw a picture, I use several techniques, mainly "milking" or "burning". As dyes I use only natural substances. So, to give ceramics a pleasant brown tint, which is called "milking", I take exclusively cow's milk. But cunning dealers involved in forgery use peat oxidate for coloring. Because of it, when heated, an unpleasant odor appears, and you should not eat food cooked in such dishes.

To feed the family, and Shepelevich has seven children, I had to switch from dishes to making ceramics

True, if you are not an expert, Vitaly notes, you will hardly be able to distinguish what materials were used in the work. Moreover, "milking" is now in vogue and a lot of dishes made in this style are sold. But ceramics, in the manufacture of which "scalding" was used, are much less on the market. This is a unique and complex way.

Secret infusion

- In the Belarusian Polissya, the technique of "scalding" has long been considered traditional and very common, - the potter dedicates to the subtleties of the matter. - But today only a few masters use it. When "scalded", pots or jugs are dipped in a special mixture made on the basis of brine, mash, whey and other ingredients. Each potter has his own recipe for preparing the mixture, and this is in some way a corporate secret. But the general condition is that the infusion must be with an acidic environment. From contact with it on red-hot ceramic dishes, which are taken out of the oven with tongs, unique patterns appear, and a protective glazed surface is also formed.It is for its authenticity that author's ceramics are valued. But, as Shepelevich notes, in the last two years, the demand for it has fallen sharply. The reason for this is the covid pandemic, due to which there are fewer foreign tourists.

- To feed my family, and I have seven children, three of whom are students, I had to switch from dishes to making ceramics for interiors and landscape design, - says the master. - The main customers are the owners of farmsteads. Somehow I get out. My familiar potters are also waiting for better times. We all hope that the coronavirus problems will end soon and ceramics will again begin to massively disperse to the homes of Belarusians and tourists coming to our hospitable country.

Vitaly Shepelevich's arithmetic

The average cost of a ceramic kiln is about 3,800 Belarusian rubles (11,500 Russian rubles). A potter's wheel will cost about 1,500 rubles. Special clay - at least 80 kopecks per kilogram. The rate of the handicraft fee is two base units per year (for 2022, this amount is 64 rubles).

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Correspondent of SOYUZ found out the unique secrets of the ancient pottery