Leonida & Gheorghe
HISTORY
Color, suns, and colorful tableware catch our eye among the other plates on display that day by Léonida and Gheorghe.
We talk about their work, and they give us a tour of their studio, where Léonida decorates ceramics while watching the latest twists and turns in her series on Romanian TV.
For her designs, she uses the same traditional tools as all the other potters in the village: a foot-powered potter’s wheel and horns for reserving the glaze, supplemented by a feather to create the motifs so typical of Horezu: lines, ripples, intersecting patterns—these designs come easily to her, as she has always worked with these tools.
In Léonida and Gheorghe’s creations, we find a sense of joy and radiance that truly embodies them.
HOREZU
Horezu is a village home to a community of about fifty artisans who handcraft traditional ceramics using methods that date back more than three hundred years. One example of this is the use of ox horn and a feather to glaze the pieces.
In 2012, Horezu pottery was recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
