Log book

From Savona to Albissola Marina the road is short, and then we are in the home of ceramics! Patrizio meets Giovanni Poggi, an artisan potter, and discovers that all the handicraft ceramics produced in his workshop are monotypes entirely done by hand and with different styles ... the Levantino, the classical “white and blue” of old Savona ... Without forgetting the modern ones, with the possibility of choosing between over 180 different artists from all over the world: Fontana, Fabbri, Moiso, Quattrini, Rossello, Salino, Sassu, Treccani ...

What is there behind this tradition and why did it develop precisely at Albissola? Well, here there is practically everything necessary for making ceramics, starting from suitable sun and air! It is a 500-year-old handicraft tradition and it seems that the first ones to begin it were the Benedictine Fathers. Then in the last 50 years over 180 artists from all over the world have been to Albissola and the workshop of Signor Poggi, and have confidently “taken advantage” of the excellent collaboration of the craftsmen, able to advise them and to assist them in the realization of works, above all in determining their destiny once they are baked ... For example, establishing the final colour that ceramics will have is no joke: manganese, copper oxide, cobalt blue ... baking transforms the colours and one needs to know well what one is doing!

The tradition of ceramics is handed down from generation to generation: Matteo Poggi, the son of Giovanni and in his turn a skilled potter, shows Patrizio the realization of a perfect sphere. From a little ball of natural river clay nimbly manipulated “as by a pizza maker”, with an almost magic dialogue between his hands and the material he obtains a cylinder that will subsequently be modelled in turn to get the spherical shape. This first base must be dried about two weeks at room temperature and put in the kiln a first time, then subjected to majolica treatment (that is to say given a white covering), decorated and painted, sprinkled with glass to get the brightness and finally baked for the second and last time. It is work that the Poggis do with passion and great ability, claiming their role as artisans, without promoting themselves as artists!