Pablo Tito’s pottery workshop and the Paco Tito Pottery Museum keep alive a generations-long tradition of manufacturing clay artefacts and utensils. They are located in Calle Valencia in Úbeda, where the potters’ guild was established long ago because of the nearby water springs and clay… pits.

Pablo Tito works with the same techniques as used by the Andalusi Arabs, who would apply the same green finish to their finer ceramic artefacts. Green, brown and black are the predominant colours in his work.

Pablo Tito’s workshop is open to the public, who are thus able to see the potter’s daily work. The workshop is lucky enough to conserve one of the few Moorish-type kilns still in use in Spain, which stands on the bed once occupied by a kiln of Andalusi origin, more than 500 years ago. The earthenware tidily stacked inside reaches temperatures of up to 1000ºC.

The clay-working process consists broadly of three phases: throwing on the potter’s wheel, decorating and glazing, and firing in the Moorish kiln. It is on the wheel that the lumps of clay take shape. The firing or baking process takes over 24 hours, and some two or three days are needed for the kiln to return to room temperature.

His work linked to construction notably includes handcrafted tiles for the restoration of the roof of the Condes de Guadiana palace, a 15th/16th century mansion in the town of Úbeda. He glazed the tiles with natural pigments procured by himself: manganese for black tiles and earth from Viso del Marqués (Ciudad Real province) for white tiles. For the latter he had to find an updated solution, as the originals were glazed with lead or tin and the toxicity of such pigments prevents their use today.