Before there was metal to beat, threads to weave, paper to write or music to hear, there was the earth. Man has been moulding earth and clay to create beautiful objects for millennia. And this primal bond with the earth is today carried forward by four incredible craftsmen who share their personal pursuits.

Located in Moustiers Sainte-Marie, one of the most beautiful villages in France, Atelier Soleil is among the oldest and most authentic ceramic workshops in Provence. It is here that Franck Scherer, the Atelier’s master craftsman, creates light and luminous faience earthenware entirely by hand following centuries-old techniques and traditions.

In the Venetian island of Murano, craftsmen having been making Murano Glass since the 13th century and Giordano Simone is continuing this prized craft, inheriting ancient techniques from both his father and grandfather.

Thousands of miles away in China, Xu Ling creates beautiful and elegant works of ceramic art called Longquan celadon, an ancient traditional craft practiced nowhere else in the world while in the small Portuguese town of Aveiro, Fernando Lima Carvalho makes painted ceramic tiles called Azulejos that encapsulate not only a cherished tradition but the very soul of Portuguese culture.