Porcelain

No, neither of us is teaching a ceramics class this year, but I'm sure working with ovens that heat to thousands of degrees could be entertaining. What we did do, however, was stop into Limoges, which is known for its history of porcelain. Long story short, we found barely any porcelain in the central part of Limoges, so we headed to a nearby town where there's a small factory for producing some porcelain pieces, the Maison Porcelaine in Aixe-sur-Vienne.

Not only was the store huge and packed full of porcelain of all sorts, but it was indeed a working factory with people applying enamel, firing clay, and I'm sure plenty of other things I've forgotten. We attended a short tour, and got a backstage view of the place! I'm pretty sure they used a bunch of kaolin and quartz for their pieces, and Limoges is allegedly known (not to me prior to this visit, thankyouverymuch) for its local cobalt, which naturally lends a wicked blue to the enamels.

It ended up being a very cool little visit.