Everyone loves beautiful handcrafted ceramics.  And while  a number of countries are known for their ceramic making traditions,  today we're going to look at the Italian tradition of ceramic making.  (After all, we love our gorgeous Tuscan Ceramics in the For the Home Department.)

The history of ceramic making goes back centuries in Italy.  And the artisan methods of crafting majolica have changed very little over the years.  The artisans take great  pride in their historic  processes.

Here, we're taking a look at the beginning - literally, of the creation of a vase.

We were fascinated by this video, showing the artist at his wheel.  He takes us from the veritable "lump of clay,"  to the graceful end, when the vase comes off his wheel.