M: Right next to the church, just a short walk from the Ceramics Museum, you'll find Birgit Greiner's workshop. An ivy-covered door leads into the showroom …
F: ... and there are plenty of tendrils and scrambling vines inside, as well. Her plates, bowls and bread bins are covered in wild berries and blossoms in delicate shades of pink, not to mention the blue and red butterflies and scuttling beetles. Birgit Greiner has specialised in the production of faience.
M: Faience features opaque white glaze on a coloured bisque fired pot. After that first firing, detailed pictures are painted on the white background with a fine brush, in softly translucent but vibrant colours. Then the piece is fired again at higher temperatures – it's "glost fired".
F: Apart from berries and butterflies, Birgit Greiner is particularly fond of a pattern she personally developed, which recreates a stylised Thuringian landscape. Between rolling hills and lush meadows lies a sleepy little village with its farms and half-timbered houses and its baroque church tower. A few birds fly across a sky with a scattering of clouds.
M: An idyllic scene for the breakfast table! In the mid-1980s, Birgit Greiner ran a workshop in neighbouring Eisenberg. She's been based in Bürgel since 1993. What was initially intended as a second string to her bow, has become the sole focus of her work. Over the years, faience tableware has completely replaced the traditional blue and white in her range.
Fotos: © Keramikmuseum Bürgel
