A Piles of Tiles
Written and photographed by Harris from Pariso

Vietre Sul Mare on the Amalfi Coast in Southern Italy is a tile-loving town that for 500 years has been making its living from producing cheerful custom-made ceramics.

Who would have thought that all the colorful plates adorning walls and decorating dining tables throughout Italy for all these centuries are still, each and every one, lovingly made and painted by hand. Look closely. No two plates, cups or vases are the same.

Many of them were, and still are, made in Vietre Sul Mare on the Amalfi Coast in Southern Italy. It is as one would imagine it, a picturesque landscape under brilliant sunshine, overlooking the clear blue Mediterranean Sea. Once-elegant buildings now faded, a town filled with narrow alleys, back streets and bustling with life.

That’s common throughout Italy. But what distinguishes Vietre Sul Mare from all other towns is a proud tradition of ceramic making, the fine art of taking a dull gray lump of clay and turning it into something useful and colorful like floor, wall, ceiling, kitchen and bathroom tiles, dinner plates, tea cups, coffee mugs, chamber pots and flower vases.

The town itself is like a living ceramic museum. It is impossible to look anywhere without seeing artistic works. The fountain in the town square is made from small brightly colored mosaic tiles sprouting water every which way. Every city trash bin is discreetly hidden inside a ceramic box. Stores don’t hang their signs. Instead, hand-painted tiles promote their goods. A bakery has bakery scene tiles. The fruit store has illustrated fruit tiles. Every apartment has tiles to decorate its walls and stairways and to display the building’s number.
No alley is gloomy. Each one has a fresco mural or a tiled exhibit that’s been there for no one knows how long. These humble alleyways are like hidden art galleries, probably still there because nobody has yet figured out how to steal an alley. A walk through Vietre Sul Mare is like a trip through a filled-in coloring book.

At the center of this commerce is Ceramica Artistica Solimene, a towering brick-colored, tiled building teaming with artisans and customers, coming and going, delivering raw materials and packing off with boxes of custom-designed ceramics.

Inside, artists are ready to adapt their style to this week’s assignment. Everything is hand made: ashtrays, plate settings, coffee mugs, even toothpick holders and picture frames.

Ceramica Artistica Solimene is well over six stories high yet it has no stairway. Instead, a wide spiral ramp coils around the inside of the building. This way, it is easy for a healthy youngster to push carts of material up the ramp to the top where the process of turning lumps of clay into cheerful decorative ceramics begins, all under the bright sunlight of the skylight roof.
Pottery is clay that is chemically altered and permanently hardened by firing in a kiln. The type of pottery, or ceramic, depends on the clay and the way it is prepared. Glazes waterproof the clay, which otherwise would absorb your morning coffee like water poured onto sand.

The potter's wheel, invented in the 4th millennium BC, is a flat disk that revolves horizontally on a pivot. When making a pot or a vase, the artisan places one hand on the inside and the other hand on the outside of the clay which has been placed on the rotating head. The artisan shapes the pot upwards as the clay rotates. Once the shape is crafted, it must first be air dried before it is fired. The pot can be decorated before or after firing. When the clay is half dry and somewhat stiff, bits of clay can be pressed into the pot. The process has not changed in thousands of years.

At Ceramica Artistica Solimene, artists work in groups around tables covered with a variety of mixed paints. There is no slacking, as there is an endless supply of orders to fill. A restaurant wants its logo, with a seaside landscape, on 200 sets of salad and dinner plates, soup and serving bowls, espresso cups and saucers, water pitchers and flower vases. A family wants their coat of arms on decorative plates. An architect needs tiles for each floor in a ten-story building that is under construction. Ever notice the tiled floors of museums and mansions? When you realize that those are all hand-painted tiles, you begin to understand how quaint artisan tile painting has been big business over the centuries. Ceramics are not just for tourists. Tiles were an industry long before the first busload arrived.

In fact, as far back as the 15th century Vietre Sul Mare has been a tile-making town. Back then, the Ceramic Commune Ceramic craftsmanship guild was a main part of the economy. The town had a huge three-floor furnace and produced thousand of plates, jars and jugs.

The spectacular vibrant colors of the region provided more than enough inspiration for the artists and the area became known for its cheerful designs. The traditional decorative motifs were its trademark, usually rural scenes depicting shepherds and young country women, agrarian landscapes, small churches and farmhouses.

At one time, Vietre Sul Mare was an important coast town, but in the 20th century it might have been completely forgotten if not for the ceramics which have the world coming to its doorstep.

Today, that tradition continues. There is a waiting list of young artisans from all over the world longing to do their apprenticeship at Ceramica Artistica Solimene. Meanwhile, visitors from every country send in their orders. On the ground floor, huge stockpiles of ceramics wait patiently to be picked up or shipped off.