Marián Čurný
History taught us that local pottery that supplies local demand normally sourced clay from local, easily accessible clay pits. The richness and quality of such resources was usually able to meet the needs of a particular pottery production. This was true between the Middle Ages and the 19th century. Today, a small number of active potters and ceramics producers prepare their clay individually, so to say ‘in-house, in an old way’. Considering what it takes and what economic aspects need to be taken into account, these potters source clay from approved and well-established Slovak clay producers and suppliers from such regions across Slovakia as Zemplín, Gemer, Myjava or the Small Carpathians. In spite of this, pottery clay is also being exported to our lands, mainly from the Czech Republic and Germany. Several well-known local deposits, once very important for pottery production, are today more or less useless as far as quantity is concerned, being sought mainly by enthusiasts for the revival of traditional pottery production, who usually do not expect to make money on such activities.