The birth of the Vezanne project
Malicorne and its sleeping earthenware
Malicorne-sur-Sarthe. A village, stories, a pottery heritage.
Our stronghold
My family and I live in a house in the heart of the village in the earthenware town, on the banks of the Vézanne, a small stream which flows into the Sarthe.
The art of pottery
Since 1747, a great number of master potters have worked in Malicorne: Jean Loiseau, Léon Pouplard, Émile Tessier, Roger François… Thousands of works of art have emerged from the kilns. Some pieces still exist, passed down from generation to generation; others await a new life in antique shops; and still others return to a fragmentary state, destroyed.
In the past, many chipped or broken ceramic pieces were discarded by potters in gardens and in the Vézanne stream, which runs alongside the potteries and village houses. The older residents of Malicorne tell us that these fragments of earthenware, these shards, were very useful , serving as fill and aerating the soil in the gardens. This is why, even today, it is not uncommon to find shards buried underground for many years.
During the long period of the first lockdown in the spring of 2020, Garance, my 7-year-old daughter, amused herself by digging in the garden soil. She searched for hours, turning over the vegetable garden soil with her tools, like an archaeologist searching for remains buried for so many years.
It was a game for Garance and her little brother Grégoire. They put the shards in their bucket, then gently washed them with a brush. Before our amazed eyes, different colors appeared, fragments of decorations…
They collected them and sorted them by decoration and by color.
Why Vezanne?
Below our garden flows the Vézanne river in which we found shards of Léon Pouplard .
These ceramic fragments have remained in a very good state of preservation. The glaze has certainly suffered the effects of time and is patinated, but the motifs with Breton decorations dear to Léon Pouplard have remained splendid and finely executed.
THE creation
From this dormant treasure buried underground, there is a very strong desire to give it a new use and a new aesthetic.
Upcycled ceramics.
It was obvious.
It was a turning point, a sign. The time had come for me to tell the story of earthenware in a different way and to elevate it .
The concept was born.
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