Thank you to everyone who join me on this fun Italian Mudd Pottery Workshop Tour! We had fun exploring the rolling hills of Tuscany and getting our hand dirty playing in the Italian Mudd.
Read below information about the 2014 Tour, of click here to read testimonials from Tour participants.
I am conducting my Mamma Mia Pottery & Sculpture Tour in the Greek Islands in 2016. Would you like to join us in 2016…?
Fun in the Italian Mudd Workshops
Pottery and Sculpture in Chianti, Italy
Join award-winning sculptor Cathy Lawley for a Tuscan Pottery and Sculpture experience. 14 days, 16-30 September 2014
If you missed out on our previous Italian tours, here is your chance to join us on our 14 day Tuscan Pottery Workshop / Tour in 2014 with Artemis Art Tours.
Join Cathy Lawley for this fabulous and fun pottery and sculpture workshop set in a beautifully restored 15th century farmhouse situated amongst the rolling hills of Tuscany, surrounded by vineyards and stunning medieval villages.
We will enjoy a full 11 day pottery workshop, including our own exhibition, and an extra 3 days to stroll around and explore beautiful Faenza – the ceramic capital of the world.
Enjoy pottery, sculpture, stunning vistas, excursions to medieval villages, museums, galleries, shopping, scrumptious food, superb wine and meet new friends.
This will be a totally unforgettable experience!!!
This tour is open to all levels of ability, including non-participants.
Pottery and Sculpture Tour Costs and Dates
Cost: $4500 per person, twin share
Single Supplement: $850
15 days from Pisa
Tour start: Tuesday 16 September
Tour end: Tuesday 30 September
Tour Group Size: 16-20 people
Tour Cost Inclusions
- accommodation for 11 nights in Chianti
- hotel for 3 nights in Faenza
- breakfast for 14 days
- lunch for 10 days
- dinner for 10 nights
- wine-tastings
- pottery/sculpture workshop for 11 days
- clay and pottery firing costs
- excursions to Tuscan towns and villages
- outings to lively markets
- entrance to various museums and galleries
- ceramic demonstration in Faenza
- airport transfers in Italy
- a multi-lingual tour leader
- welcome and farewell cocktails
Pottery and Sculpture Tour Itinerary & Places we visit
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Pottery and Sculpture Tour ITINERARY OVERVIEW
Below you will find an overview of our tour Itinerary. When preparing this itinerary we have ensured that there is ample time for workshop activities as well as sightseeing and enjoying the beautiful Tuscan countryside. Click here to read through a more detailed itinerary.
Tuesday 16 September
Pick up from Pisa Airport Transfer to accommodation and settle into our rooms. We enjoy a Welcome dinner in Bagnano. A genuine countryside trattoria close to the school.
Meals: Dinner
Wednesday 17 September || Pottery Workshop
A day of demonstrations on the potters wheel attaching animals to the pieces eg: Italian green frog. In the late afternoon we head off for some shopping in Certaldo and dinner in Bagnano.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerThursday 18 September || Pottery Workshop
A day of throwing and hand-building large sculpture, urns with faces carved.In the evening we enjoy Olive oil tasting and light dinner at La Meridiana.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Friday 19 September || Pottery Workshop
A day hand-building large sculpture with dinner in Bagnano.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerSaturday 20 September || Pottery Workshop
A day hand-building sculptures with dinner in Bagnano.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerSunday 21 September || Pottery Workshop
We spend a half day finishing off pieces then an afternoon trip to San Gimignano and dinner in trattoria of own choice.
Meals: Breakfast, LunchMonday 22 September || Firing Day and Free Day
Once our pieces are hardened they are bisqued fired. This can take up to two days pending on the size of the kiln
Meals: BreakfastTuesday 23 September || Firing Day
Spend a half day glazing pieces for raku firing
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerWednesday 24 September || Firing Day
Raku firing of the pieces (this is good for the students to participate in). In the evening enjoy a guided visit of a family run organic wine growing farm with dinner.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerThursday 25 September || Firing Day
Raku firing of the pieces (this is good for the students to participate in). In the afternoon we take a trip to Barberino with wine tasting at Canto di Baccio and dinner.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Friday 26 September
Today we critique and set up our exhibition for the evening’s Reception and Buffet dinner.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerSaturday 27 September
Transfer to Faenza – the ceramic capital of the world! Enjoy a guided afternoon visit to Zauli House and pottery workshops. For more information visit: www.museozauli.it
Meals: LunchSunday 28 September
Spend the day in Faenza where we visit a local pottery workshop and enjoy a guided tour at a Ceramic museum. Maiolica demo.www.ceramichevignoli.com For more information visit: www.micfaenza.org
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerMonday 29 September || Free Day
Meals: BreakfastTuesday 30 September || Free Day
Meals: Breakfast -
Pottery and Sculpture Tour DETAILED ITINERARY
Below is a detailed itinery and below that about the places we will visit and the activities we will undertake. We’ll have plenty of time for both workshop activities and time to enjoy the romance of the Italian countryside, its shopping and culture. We visit the beautiful towns of Bagnano, La Meridiana, including the La Meridiana international School of Ceramic Art, San Gimignano, Bargello Museum in Florence, Barberino, Faenza and Canto di Baccio. We will also enjoy an authentic italian cooking lesson at the Italian Cooking School.Pottery and Sculpture Tour Itinerary
Day 1 -Tuesday 16 September
Pick up from Pisa Airport Transfer to accommodation and settle into our rooms. We enjoy a Welcome dinner in Bagnano. A genuine countryside trattoria close to the school.
Meals: DinnerDay 2 – Wednesday 17 September || Pottery Workshop
9am till 5pm We start our class in the fully equipped studio, 17th Century restored farmhouse ‘Tuscany pottery school of Ceramics’ using beautiful Italian clay.
Cathy will demonstrate throwing on the wheel making various forms for adding animals and attaching handles. This is when we will be making the Italian green frog to attach to our vessels. With 14 wheels available in the studio everyone will have time on the potters wheel, plenty of great photos and some fun poses to capture on the potters wheel is a must to send home!
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerDay 3 – Thursday 18 September || Pottery Workshop
Creating sculpture: drawing the space and forming the piece. Participants will explore traditional techniques of creating sculpture-using clay. You will learn to ‘see’ perception of 3D form, what it can be. In the most beautiful sculpture city in the world steeped in history there will be plenty of creativity, ideas and shapes to choose from.
Everyone who attends the workshop will be given an information booklet on the basic steps to creating sculpture and understanding the process of hand building and raku firing.
You will learn step by step how to create a sculpture bust of choice. Catering from beginners to professional.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerDay 4 – 19 September || Pottery Workshop
Portraiture understanding: This is a learning process understanding the facial features. Continue working on your piece building from the basic shape to the more integrate parts with step-by-step guidance.
The essence of sculpture is the art of space. It can be experienced through sight, touch and sometimes even sound.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerDay 5 – 20 September || Pottery Workshop
In this class we will be sculpting our Australian Kookaburra to leave as a gift for the Tuscany School of Ceramics, also continuing to work on your sculptures.
Learning sculpture is a mind-opening experience that can be both challenging and delightful. It is a beautiful creative process – it is so easy to become entranced with the sculpting process!
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerDay 6 – 21 September || Pottery Workshop
Half day. Finishing off the pieces making sure they are buffed, burnished and drying out preparing for the bisque firing process.
2.30 pm afternoon trip to San Gimignana and dinner in Trattoria.
Meals: Breakfast, LunchDay 7 – 22 September || Firing Day and Free Day
Once our pieces are hardened they are bisqued fired. This can take up to two days pending on the size of the kiln
Meals: BreakfastDay 8 – 23 September || Firing Day
Glazing. We will explore the traditional raku glaze, experiment with new recipes, and mix my own ‘secret’ raku recipe and apply to our pieces!Day 9 – 24 September || Firing Day
Everyone will participate in the raku firing process, its fun and instant. There is more information on the process raku click here.
7pm a guided visit to a family run organic wine growing farm with dinner
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerDay 10 – 25 September || Firing Day
Setting up exhibition of our works. The Italian Cooking School experience. 3pm a trip to Barberino, for wine tasting at Canto di Baccio and dinner!!!
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerDay 11 – 26 September
Critique. The exhibition will be celebrated with a buffet of wine and cheese, a chance to show off your masterpieces before departure the next day.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerDay 12 – Saturday 27 September
Transfer to Faenza – the ceramic capital of the world! Enjoy a guided afternoon visit to Zauli House and pottery workshops. For more information visit: www.museozauli.it
Meals: LunchDay 13 – Sunday 28 September
Spend the day in Faenza where we visit a local pottery workshop and enjoy a guided tour at a Ceramic museum. Maiolica demo. www.ceramichevignoli.com For more information visit: www.micfaenza.org
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerDay 14 – Monday 29 September || Free Day
Meals: BreakfastDay 15 – Tuesday 30 September || Free Day
Meals: Breakfast -
The Places we visit
BagnanoBagnano is a small hamlet in the Tuscan countryside half way between Barberino Val d’Elsa and Certaldo. Certaldo, like many other Tuscan towns, Certaldo is divided between its medieval walled town on a hill and the modern residential and industrial suburb spread out below. Certaldo is one of Tuscany’s best-known cities of art, where Boccaccio was born.
La Meridiana international School of Ceramic Art, Tuscany.
The Ceramic School is set in a restored 15th century farmhouse, in the centre of Tuscany, land of Etruscan and Roman culture, medieval architecture and renaissance splendour. Our goal is to offer a facility dedicated to a continual education in the ceramic art, a meeting ground in a place rich in Italian culture. Italian Inspiration and Italian TechniquesTravel has always provided a source of inspiration for visual artists. Seeing new things even if they are antiquities can make your mind race with new ideas.The itinerary for this trip is designed to provide visual stimulation as a valuable teaching and learning tool for those interested in ceramics. Read more about La Meridiana International School of Ceramic Art here.
San Gimignano
San Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy. Known as the Town of Fine Towers, San Gimignano is famous for its medieval architecture, unique in the preservation of about a dozen of its tower houses,[1] which, with its hilltop setting and encircling walls form “an unforgettable skyline”The town also is known for the white wine, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, produced from the ancient variety of Vernaccia grape which is grown on the sandstone hillsides of the area
FlorenceFlorence is the capital of the region of Tuscany in Italy, with a population of about 366,500. The city is considered a cultural, artistic and architectural gem. Opera was invented in Florence.
Then there are the art galleries. The Uffizi and the Pitti Palace are two of the most famous picture galleries in the world. But the heart and soul of Florence are in the two superb collections of sculpture, the Bargello and the Museum of the Works of the Duomo. They are filled with the brilliant, revolutionary creations of Donatello, Verrochio, Desiderio da Settignano, Michelangelo, and so many other masterpieces that create a body of work unique in the world. And, of course, there is the Accademia, with Michelangelo’s David, perhaps the most well-known work of art anywhere, plus the superb, unfinished prisoners and slaves Michelangelo worked on for the tomb of Pope Julius II.
In all, Florence has something over 80 museums.
Bargello MuseumThe National Museum has its setting in one of the oldest buildings in Florence that dates back to 1255.The building’s use as National Museum began in the mid-19th century. Today it is the setting for works of sculpture, mainly from the grand ducal collections, and for many examples of “minor” Gothic decorative arts.
Certaldo Alto
The Italian landscape is littered with quaint villages and hillside outposts with names like Montecatini Alto, Fagnano Alto, and San Nicola dell’Alto. ‘Alto’ literally translates into ‘tall’ or ‘high,’ but in Italy the term has truly come to signify the unspoiled, Old World beauty of medieval towns neither ruined by war nor changed by time.
Barberino Val d’Elsa
The town of Barberino Val d’Elsa is a beautiful medieval village surrounded by the green Tuscan countryside between Florence and Siena. Situated along the ancient Cassia road which connects Florence to Rome, it offers a stunning panorama of the Chianti region.
Canto di Baccio
In the charming enoteca Canto di Baccio reigns a beautiful atmosphere of other times. The beautifully refurbished little “salon ” in medieval Barberino, overlooks the Elsa valley. The prize winning vines of La Spinosa are displayed and while tasting, the knowledgeable host Danila, will explain it’s making and the characterizing treats.A carefully selected choice of local cheeses, mainly made out of sheep milk, from fresh to more aged, cured meats, olives and other fine foods are the perfect complement to a fresh white and brilliant, full bodied reds of different vintages.
A rarely found, true specialty is the sweet dessert wine made of late harvested grapes. All of the golden autumn beauty seems to be concentrated in it. The numbered bottles are taken in high account.
Taste it while exploring the truth about renowned Tuscan chocolate valley. Small producers have started to combine first choice chocolate to unexpected ingredients like rosemary, chilli pepper and even truffles.
A smooth grappa will close this sensorial experience.
Faenza
Faenza, at the foot of the first Subapennine hills, enjoys a fine location and evocative agrarian surroundings: vineyards in the hills, cultivated land with traces of the ancient Roman land-division system, and fertile market gardens in the plains. In the nearby green valleys of the rivers Samoggia and Lamone there are great number of 18th and 19th century stately homes, set in extensive grounds or preceded by long cypress-lined driveways.
In the history of ceramics, the tin glaze ware from Faenza that was exported to France and the rest of Europe in the 16th century, took on the name from its place of origin. Faenza ware became known as Faience. Tin glaze, previously known as Majolica or the Italian name Maiolica gained its name from being traded through the port of Majorca. At the time, 13th to 15th centuries, it was illegal to trade directly with Moorish Spain, the producers of tin glazed ware and the more decorative tin glazed Lusterware
Tuscan Cooking Lesson and Lunch
In Italy, cooking is the art that is available to everyone. No matter what your budget, meals and eating are for celebration and nourishment, in the truest sense of the world. La Cucina di Giuseppina. For more information about our Italian cooking lesson click here.
Tour Participant Testimonials
“As the song goes, I had the time of my life. The tour was exceptionally well planned and catered for. The Le Meridian Pottery School was amazing. Surrounded by vineyards and olive groves in beautiful Tuscany, what a creative and inspiring place to be doing a workshop, with Cathy’s expertise as always”
Kaye, Fun in the Italian Mudd 2014
