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Apt earthenware, art earthenware

Apt earthenware is renowned even in the United States and Canada. Three hundred makers produced it in 1840. Today, only two workshops are still active, of which the Atelier du Vieil Apt, which opened in 2003.
Luc Jacquel and Benoît Gils set up their earthenware workshop in Apt itself, the cradle of their art. These two creators, who are the successors of a three-hundred year old tradition of art earthenware makers, carry on together the trade which was transmitted to them by Master Jean Faucon, himself the heir of a long line of artisans who elevated tableware art, while chiseling clay as if it were gold.

Entering the workshop is like having the Lubron in your hand. You can see all the shine of its soil, the luxuriance of its vegetation, the softness of its horizons. Whether in the transparent blue of its sky, in the ochre of its gentle hills which lean languorously toward the sunset, in the green of its oak trees and olive trees, or in the delicate shapes of its flora, everything here resembles this luminous country of Provence.
In 1720 the potter César Moulin invented the fine earthenware, which made the Pays d'Apt renowned, and which our two friends are carrying on. By pure chance.
 

Tradition and modernity

Luc Jacquel was not predestined to work in the magical art of changing clay into splendid polychromes. An electro-mechanic by training, and an Aptesian defector who discovered Paris thanks to his friend Philippe Léotard, he came back to his home land at his childhoods brothers invitation, the great earthenware maker Jean Faucon. To help him with an order This lasted fifteen years. Jean passed on to him all his secrets and his passion for this real alchemy from which this earthenware which is unique in the world is created.
   Benoît Gils, as a child, already made objects of clay. As a teenager, he earned his pocket money by selling his production. Hired in a pastry shop, he developed his skill as a modeler with the almond paste for cakes... He became an assistant mason, but was not happy. His mother knew Faucon, and recommended her son. Just to see. Jean Faucon excelled in the art of changing clay into a flower. He showed Benoît one of his creations, and challenged him to do the same. When the young man brought him two flowers and asked him which one was his, Jean Faucon was mistaken and showed the one Benoît had made Benoît was hired on the spot. Five years later Jean died.
   In February 2003, after their master and friends death, Luc and Benoît decided to work together and to found their own workshop: the Atelier du Vieil Apt. Success was immediate.
   Luc, a cheerful forty year old with soft blue eyes, owns the secrets of twelve generations of earthenware makers, and Benoît, a thin young man of thirty, has the sensuality and the grace of a great goldsmith: they complement each other perfectly. Together, they have taken up the challenge of tradition and modernity, and added their names to the history of earthenware masters.
   Luc and Benoît magnify the soil: clay which they let rot in an oak barrel full of water. The longer the clay rots, the better it is, states Luc. In the large barrel in the middle of their shop, which is half a workshop and half a show-room, are mingled all the tones of the Apt earthenware, so typical and unique.
   In addition to the yellow soil, said to be from Castellet, sober and luminous, true reproductions of the Rgence and Louis XV models of Master César Moulin, Apt earthenware is characterized by an iridescent combination of clays of various colors, which are kneaded in the mass. Its spectacular aspect, veined or flamb, delicately refined, is the result of a long process and a lot of work
 

A nest of secrets

Natural, or tinted with natural pigments or oxides, the wet clay coming out of the barrel must dry out in porous basins until it reaches the consistency which allows Luc to work with it: every earthenware maker is a nest of secrets, he states smiling, when you ask him how he does it. In contrast to pottery which is made with a wheel, earthenware is molded and turned. His edgings are fine clay rolls pre-set on plaster molds on which the raw paste is then worked. After approximately twenty minutes it can be removed (sometimes with a hair dryer), and about two weeks of drying are necessary before baking it a first time. This is when Benoît can create his luxuriant motifs, with yellow clay or white soil from Vallauris. He shapes each detail with his nails, or needles, molds, leaves from olive trees, rose bushes, oak trees: a delicate and lavish abundance of motifs which he glues on the raw soil with a clay slip which he must master perfectly. A soup tureen with a flower motif requires two days of patient labor.
   The result is worthwhile. Each piece is unique. Each one is signed. The platters, plates, vases, bowls, cups, saucers, soup tureens which come out of the oven are different in color, design or motif: a profusion of shapes and colors, of motifs and invention. With the mischievous look of someone who is sure of himself Benoît knocks a veined dish with his fingers: the sound is clear and limpid. This is the work of two artists who are happy in their trade, who think about it night and day, and who outshine the precious legacy they received.

Charles-Henri Calame, 2004