Decorative ceramic jug · Maramureș · Brown & purple hues

Traditional ceramic jar with distinctive geometric handle evocative of ancestral Dacian motifs, featuring horizontal ridged texture and subtle natural earth tones with purple hues obtained through natural firing processes and mineral pigments. Created on a potter’s wheel and polished with river stone, this vessel embodies the tactile, symbolic aesthetic of Carpathian traditional craft, making it perfect for display or ceremonial use.

The Craft. Daniel Leș extracts his clay from great depths in the Maramureș region, and kneads it for two years before shaping it on the potter's wheel into vessels that evoke Dacian and pre-Dacian cultures, such as the symbolic wolf's teeth motifs. Each piece is polished with a river stone before being fired in a high-temperature kiln. Natural pigments obtained from earth, rocks and plants add subtle colour, giving the vessels their sophisticated, earthy appearance. This traditional approach honours methods documented in Maramureș since potters' guilds, called magister figuli, flourished in the region over a millennium ago.

The Heritage. More than 2000 years ago, the Dacians lived in deep connection to the Carpathian Mountains and the fertile Danube plains, creating objects for daily use, rituals and trade that reflected their worldview and spiritual beliefs. Their aesthetic legacy of balanced forms, incised decorations and rich symbolic imagery endured through the folk art of the Romanians, their direct descendants. The pottery tradition of Maramureș carries this ancient lineage forward, preserving techniques and forms that bridge millennia. Daniel Leș continues this heritage in the region today, finding authenticity and inner peace in the simple life and ancient methods that connect him to his ancestors.

The Maker. Born into a family of craftsmen in Baia Sprie, Maramureș, Daniel Leș became an apprentice in his father's workshop at age 12. He pursued formal specialised courses, but remains convinced that the old apprenticeship method holds greater value. Seeing himself as a lump of clay in the hand of the Great Potter, Daniel vows not to leave any piece of clay untransformed in his studio built in his grandparents' village, where he creates and teaches restlessly. Honouring the memory of old masters, Daniel brings the past alive in his vessels for people to take home and make part of their present.