Pottery workshop
L'Atelier Romain Bernex has existed since 1996. It is run by Marie-Pierre and Cyrille Huyghues Despointes who create a production of original ceramics, utilitarian and decorative, luxurious, relaxed, where colors and shine accompany a festive and cosmopolitan spirit.
Traditionally made, the manufacturing is entirely artisanal and carried out in Valréas, in Provence.
Contemporary creations imbued with tradition, refined shapes and “Nature” colors...
In twenty-five years, in the tradition of the art manufactures of the end of the 19th century, our workshop is, through the high standards brought to each of its creations, today present in prestigious places where quality, originality and rarity are the reference criteria.
Like its founders, the Atelier is based in Valréas, anchored in a territory, Provence. The workshop was successively established in Marseille then Aubagne and now in Valréas in Vaucluse. Linked to the Mediterranean, very close to Marseille. A territory enriched by millennia of successive settlements, the mixing of populations and cultures from all around the Mediterranean.
Between sea and hills, in this arid landscape, under the southern sun which brings a unique light, we make, from red clay, pots, containers of all shapes, intended for all uses... Provence is home to more than ever the creators, craftsmen and industrialists who have given ceramics some of its finest letters of nobility... This activity between craftsmanship and industry benefits from know-how accumulated over the centuries and perpetuates in this place a production which is nourishes traditions and is deliberately anchored in the present and modernity.
"Design artisanal" et céramique
At the Atelier, we like to talk about "artisanal design", which encompasses the beautiful, the functional and the tradition through "our culture today". Pottery and ceramics from the past for our roots, creation, pleasure and technique for the present...
The clay, the wheel, the cooking, the enamels… Technique comes to serve desire, objects are born from necessity. The design is simply, naturally in keeping with the times, with the time here, with the desire to access purity and the greatest simplicity. Objects that have always existed but which belong to the present moment: attractive, trendy, useful, and used...
A tool, the hand. A raw material, clay.
The enamels, which give texture, shine and color, are the trademark of "Atelier Bernex": the baths are developed within the workshop from pigments and oxides.
Particular attention makes it possible to prohibit uniformity and to favor the material. These enamels, less standardized than industrial bases, allow access to greater subtlety in renderings.
The pieces are shaped by hand, then an undercoat of fine clay is applied before cooking: this is engobage. This artisanal technique allows the turning marks to be preserved, but softens the grooves and modeling traces.
It is from this technique that the stained glass effect comes, the shine and depth, the “handmade” appearance, the velvety sensation.
The manufacturing process requires around thirty manipulations and know-how:
“the raw”: shaping by hand turning, calibration, stamping or modeling. finishing: sponging, handle (for cups, etc.).
engobage: application of a thin undercoat of colored earth. At this stage our creations are signed by hand and finally drying.
"the biscuit" obtained by a first firing which transforms the clay into ceramic.
“the decoration” according to the models (edging, calligraphy, etc.).
“enamelling” obtained by applying and firing an enamel in one or two steps.
