Thrapsano

Folklore - Ancient crafts

Thrapsano

- a potter's village

Crete has four villages with pottery as the main occupation: Kentrí in Lassíthi County, Thrapsanó in Iráklio County, Margarítes in Réthymno County and Nochiá in Chaniá County.
The potters in Kentri and in Nochia produce mostly smaller ceramics and have permanent workshops. In the towns of Thrapsano and Margarites the potters also produce the very big pots, pithária. Until a few years ago these potters (pitharádes) travelled about Crete producing and selling their products.
Thrapsano, 25 km south east of Iraklio, has about 1.000 inhabitants of whom 26 are potters, but more than half of the inhabitants have some connection to the craft. The name of the village comes of the word thrápsala, which means potsherds, and broken pottery you find in large numbers around the kilns, as the village is the centre of pottery in Crete.
Sources from the past 150 years tell us that the thrapsaniotes have practised seasonal exodus, whereas in the village itself only relatively few kilns operated, owned by the older potters who mostly produced smaller pots.
*The exodus (vendéma) took place in the summer season and followed a fixed and extremely well organized procedure defined by working conditions and traditions.*
The word vendema is of Venetian origin (vendemmis = harvest) and refers to the "harvest of money", which the potters could get by selling pots travelling about the island. But to the rural population vendema meant a big harvest of olives. Every two years the olives bear a particular amount of fruits. This does not happen all over Crete at the same time but varies from area to area. The pattern repeats itself, unless there are abnormal weather conditions or diseases in the trees. Some older farmers have told me, that the potters came to their area every two years i.e. the year of vendema. This was the most profitable, as the need of pots increased correspondingly these years, and the potters were able to make good earnings.
Vendemiárides or takími was a group of potters with different skills, who in April - May went out to the remotest places in Crete (for example Zakros to the east and Kastelli to the west) and returned to Thrapsano in September.
These organized groups have been characterised as guilds just like those in Western Europe. Even though the form of organization has resemblances, the social and working conditions of the group are totally different from the western models. First of all these groups did not consist of permanent members but changed every year. Secondly the individual member might choose another specialization, if that was what he wanted and had the skills for. Thirdly a number of them left the occupation completely after a period of time, while others might take it up again later. These free practices have no relation whatsoever to the structure of the craft guilds of the West.
Organizer for the whole procedure and leader of the group was the master (mástoras), who was a specialized pitharás. The master left Thrapsano in mid-winter (December - January) to rent a good kiln in an area, where a good harvest was expected the following year. If that kiln was already rented out, and it was not possible to find another satisfactory kiln in the area, he had to go on to another area. Sometimes he went several hundred kilometres away from Thrapsano.
During his journey he got information of where the other potters intended to settle and estimated, how hard the competition would be. The travelling potters knew very well the skills of all their rivals, whether these came from Thrapsano or Margarites.
Or the master might decide to build a new kiln together with his group in an area, where the harvest showed signs of becoming big. Even though it was a time-consuming and strenuous process, it might be worth the effort. He selected a suitable place near a watercourse or a spring and with occurrences of clayey soil as well. Then he had to negotiate with the owner of the land about getting a licence to build the kiln and about the rent, which was usually paid in kind (pottery). According to the rules in Crete the landowner owned the kiln as well, and therefore he was able to rent it out to other potters the following years. This practice was a result of the potters not settling the same place every year as already mentioned. Hoping for a good vendema the potters often broke their promises made in autumn of returning to the kiln next spring.
A last solution for a master, who could not achieve the above things, was to rent a free kiln in an area without vendema harvest.
When the pitharás returned to Thrapsano, he went over his group and picked out his helpers. These helpers then decided individually, if they were interested in working with the master in the area he had chosen. But because they might have had offers from other pitharádes as well, the negotiations were often complex and prolonged.
*When the takimi-group was formed, it consisted in addition to the master of the following members:*
Sotomástoras (Venetian soto = under, meaning vice master) was a potter, who produced smaller pots. He moreover assisted the master in making the last details on the big pots (handles, decoration etc.).
Chomatás had the knowledge of finding clay. He took care of the digging up and the preparation of the clay for the pots.
Kamináris or xylás was responsible for the firing of the pots. Pithatás selected the kamináris very carefully, because one unsuccessful firing meant many days of lost work. Kamináris had to be very experienced, because it was difficult to estimate for how long time and at which temperature the firing was going to take place, as many factors enter into it: weather conditions, preheating, big or small pots, the quality of the firewood, the spreading of the heat in the kiln, how the kiln itself is fired etc.

In addition to that he had to gather - and often from far away - the big amounts of wood needed for every single firing.

Trocháris turned the pitharás' hand driven wheel strictly following his orders. It was a difficult task, because the speeds of rotation were different, depending on whether the master was forming the sides or the opening of the pot etc. He moreover helped the group with other jobs. Usually the trocháris was at the age of 15 - 40 years.
Kouvalítis was a young man occupied by different small jobs. He took care of the beasts of burden and assisted with the transport of clay and firewood.
When the vendemiárises set out at the beginning of May, everyone except for kouvalitís brought along a donkey or a mule. The animals were loaded with the necessary tools (wheel, hammers. shovels, mattocks etc), things for the camping (kitchen ware, blankets etc.) together with food for the journey itself and for the first weeks of work. The beasts of burden were later used for transport of the pots to the surrounding villages.
They installed themselves near the kiln in simple huts made of branches. After a period of time with intensive work chiefly carrying out orders for pithária, some members of the group offered their products for sale in the surrounding area.
In September when it was time for returning to Thrapsano, the master calculated the earnings. The profit was distributed in the following way: he himself and kamináris had 1¹/₄part each, sotomástoras, chomatás and trocháris 1 part each and kouvalitís ½ part.