Yazd Pottery

Yazd Pottery

Yazd Pottery

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The art of pottery is one of the most beautiful and ancient crafts of Meybod which, due to its history and economic importance, showcasing the artistic taste of people of Meybod. In city of Meybod in Yazd, Mend-e Gonabad in Khorasan and Estahban in Fars, white clay is used to make pottery. After heating the products, they are covered with a layer of Doughab or slurry. Doughab is a mixture made of pure white clay, but its chemical components variy in each city. The potteries are then painted by different colors, glazed and heated for the last time.

In Meybod, most commonly applicable potteries are made. One of the motifs used is Sun depicted as a beautiful woman. Decorative foliage, birds, fish and abstract motifs are some of other designs of Meybod pottery. They are a reflection of life styles, dreams and desires of their creators. Colors and glazes of potteries are blue, green, yellow, and the motifs are traced with thin black lines. In Meybod, utensils like jugs, pitchers and vats are created too, but they are used locally.

Very little is known about the history of pottery in Meybod; However, pottery artifacts with relief of Sphinx (a creature half human, half animal) have been found. Since mythical patterns such as Sphinx belongs to the Iranian religions older than Zoroastrianism, it proves that pottery has been practiced in Meybod more than three thousand years ago. Some of the other pottery artifacts have been found in ancient graves, alongside of remains of bodies that belonged to Achaemenid and Parthian dynasty. Today archaic motifs are still being used such as foliage, geometric and abstract and fine motifs. They are usually symbols of the same religions and beliefs of the past.

There are vast lands and clay hills that have spread from Yazd to Ardakan. The most pure and fine-grained clay can be found in Meybod, which has resulted in a strong trade of pottery and ceramics in this city. In fact, pottery of Meybod relates directly to its geological and geographic situation. High quality clay and mines of silica and kaolin in the neighborhood of Meybod, along with the desert climate of this area, is another reason why pottery and ceramics have prospered in Meybod.


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