Qamishli – North-Press Agency<\/b>
Reem Chamoun<\/b><\/p>\n
Pottery maker Misak Antranik Pedros told North-Press about the craft that the family has inherited since the mid-19th century.
“The family inherited the pottery craft from six fathers, my father had learned it from my grandfather, and I learned it from my father, and I have taught it to my son\u201d.
Pedros’s family was displaced from Turkey following the Armenian massacres which were committed by the Ottoman State against the Armenians and the Syriacs in 1915, to complete its life in Syria, according to him.
“My family was forced to emigrate from our hometown of Sasun, which is located located on the Turkish-Armenian-Iranian borders during the Assyrian genocide (Seyfo), where my father was fourteen years old\u201d, said Pedros while recalling that they had settled in Qadur-Bek neighborhood in the city of Qamishli.
“It was the only neighborhood in the city of Qamishli since ninety years, and the only thing the family mastered is making pottery so that my father with the help of my grandfather began to secure the raw materials and machinery, and started working\u201d.
Pedros began working in pottery at the age of 13 with his father, while he taught this profession to his eldest son, Anto, who began working under his supervision.<\/p>\n
Difficulties<\/b>
As for the differences between the pottery industry in comparison with the present day, Pedros said: “The work was difficult compared to today\u2019s, because most of it was handmade and we did not have modern machines compared to what we have today, we only had the wheel on which we made pottery\u201d.
Pedros inherited the pottery wheel from his grandfather about 60 years ago. He still uses it until now, where he has moved it with him to all the cities and places where he worked, noting that he has moved a lot and made pottery in many Syrian cities such as Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, al-Baseera, al-Bukamal, al-Mayadeen and some cities in Iraq, in addition to participating in Damascus International Fair.
Pedros explained that they had to dig in some land in search for the best soil and ancient pottery, noting that the Syrian government had appointed him for a period of time as an expert in the eastern region of antiquities, where his hobby was to search for and collect the ancient pottery.<\/p>\n
Mechanism of action<\/b>
Pedros\u2019s son, Anto explained the method and the way of making pottery, he said: \u201cWe bring the dust from the neighborhood of al-Hilaliya in the city of Qamishli, since our work needs a specific type of soil called al-Bailon or clay. Then we sort the clay, mix it by a machine and sifter it in the water to sieve out the stones and sticks since the clay must be clean and resembles putty”.
The sorting process lasts for some days because it needs the sun to dry the putty a little bit, then we make various pots which are left to dry inside the rooms because the strong sunlight causes cracking. After pots are completely dried, they are burnt in the pottery oven, which takes about three continuous days because some pots need to be burnt more than once to take its full shape, according to Anto.
Anto pointed out: “The process of preparing and igniting the oven needs to buy wood or wood shavings, because it does not work on fuel and this is also expensive compared to the prices of materials we make, but the inherited craft by seven generations of the family must continue\u201d, noting that “our work depends on orders such as water jars, wedding jars, mugs, and sometimes bread-bakery oven.
The family, which says it is the only one in this profession, makes the pottery in its house because it’s far from the city center, saying they do not want to bother other people with the smoke coming out from pottery burning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Qamishli – North-Press AgencyReem Chamoun Pottery maker Misak Antranik Pedros told North-Press about the craft that the family has inherited since the mid-19th century.“The family inherited the pottery craft from six fathers, my father had learned it from my grandfather, and I learned it from my father, and I have taught it to my son\u201d.Pedros’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-syria"],"yoast_head":"\n