Location: New Gate, Old City, Jerusalem, Israel
Portrait of an Armenian Potter
“ Pouring fresh blood into old veins” -- George Sandrouni
George Sandrouni is part of a new generation working in an old tradition. His father was not a potter. In fact, George trained as a classical pianist, and it wasn’t until 1983 that he began dabbling in pottery. As George says, " If my playing were as good as my ceramics making I would be Tchaikovsky."
His first designs were primitive, simple designs imitative of the oriental motifs on wood carvings and carpets, and traditional Armenian designs such as birds and flowers. Today George reigns supreme over ten workers, two buildings, and a business that is innovative and successful combining the traditions of classical Armenian subjects with local Palestinian, Biblical, and sixth century Byzantine designs. In his shop you will find Hebrew as well English and Arabic. George, who has no real job description, writes the checks, designs, oversees his crew of girls, carries heavy objects from one place to another, glazes, fires, and sells the pottery, and as he says "remains a humble servant to his workers."
George creates with his wife, Dorin Sandrouni, an artist in her own right. He credits Dorin with the sophistication that took the business a step forward in both the process of producing the pottery and and the design work. When they met, Dorin was a sculptor and an art teacher. To the one dimensional painting of plates and other objects, Dorin added a three dimensional sculptor's approach. As George says, she added her academic background to his traditional work.
In 1918 many Armenians came to Jerusalem as did George's parents and older brother who at nine months was carried in his mother's arms. Armenians in Jerusalem made use of local themes and animals such as the gazelle (in the wild) and species from the Bible entered the pottery vernacular as well. In Jerusalem Armenian pottery of course is influenced by Turkish oriental design.Traditional Armenian pottery colors were blue and turquoise for the sky greens for earth.Colors should be the elements of life which can be seen frequently in nature.
Currently, George uses two kilns for his work. The kiln which he has used for 30 years is from Portland Oregon, but the new one from Germany can fire twice the number of objects. And since George's business has grown so much, he had to open a new workshop in the old Al Mamal building right around the corner from the Sandrouni salesroom. The new workshop is spacious and contains shelves of pomegranates and pitchers and tiles and plates and bowls and bottles of paint. While I was there, two women painted diligently, rarely looking up . When I asked George what he looked for when hiring these women, he said they had to be highly skilled and have steady hands but not the artist's sensibility because artists try to impose too many ideas on the pottery. Twenty percent of these women do not work out, but as George said, the best ones often "mess up badly" in the first few months.
For someone who has just expanded to two beautiful spaces, George sounds a little pessimistic about the future of the business. He believes there is not a bright future for handicrafts anywhere in the world.The business, the art he has built, could, according to George, go two ways because of the “human factor” involved. Either a family member might continue it in the same direction that George and his wife have taken it or this next generation might try to renovate and make more money losing the traditions and time it takes to make these beautiful pieces by hand.
Please watch the video interviews with George Sandrouni below and visit his informative website: http://www.sandrouni.com/.