The potter, Julián Ortega Durán

Julián Ortega Durán is a third-generation potter, grandson of Rafael Ortega Porras , an illustrious Extremaduran potter of Frexnense origin, who was awarded the National Crafts Prize in 1982.

Since childhood, he'd been getting his hands dirty with clay, having fun in his grandfather's workshop. At first, he was more interested in playing and shaping the characters that populated his imagination than in formally learning the techniques, but without realizing it, he began internalizing them, one doll at a time. Later, during his adolescence, he participated as an assistant or apprentice on some of his grandfather's projects and accompanied him as a teacher on some classes with children.

Julian working on the lathe at age 4. Hoy newspaper, June 6, 1993

Later, after studying and working as a political scientist, at the age of 27, he began his academic training as a ceramist in his region, at the School of Art and Superior Design of Mérida , to acquire more systematized knowledge that would complement his inherited knowledge. At this time, together with his partner Inés Fernández Moreno , he began participating in craft markets in his region and in entrepreneurship programs. At one of these events, he met and learned from the famous Torrejoncillo potter Antonio Moreno . He enjoyed an Erasmus scholarship for Young Entrepreneurs in Ireland, where he worked with Adrian Wistreich at his Kinsale Pottery and Arts Centre and learned a lot from him and his Scottish ceramist friend Julian Smith .

He continued his studies in Madrid at the Francisco Alcántara School of Art , where he graduated with a Higher Technician in Fine Arts and Design in Artistic Ceramics. He also taught classes at various cultural centers at Madrid City Hall. In this environment, he was able to work as a colleague, student, and friend of many accomplished and now renowned ceramists. He also enjoyed the immense cultural offerings organized in the capital and the wealth of knowledge available from the museums and temporary exhibitions held there. During one of the activities organized in Madrid by the Moncloa Ceramics School , during a teaching trip to Valencia and Manises, he befriended the learned Alfonso D'Ors , who from then on offered him excellent advice. On that same trip, he began a beautiful friendship with the trencadís artist Alejandro Moreno . But he also met and shared moments in this Madrid context with the brilliant ceramist Ícaro Maiterena , with the brutal sculptor Jorge Yunta or with the jeweler Julieta Álvarez among many other greats.

A convinced defender of functionality over the purely aesthetic, he wanted his training to grow and deepen in this line, for which he began studying Industrial Design and Product Development Engineering at the University of Extremadura in his hometown, his studies focused on the development of ceramic products and tools for the artisan. He did curricular internships as a designer in the Spanish ceramic industry of Castellón, at Esmaltes SA , while also producing sigillata pieces in the workshop of the kind and wise Rafa Galindo . He also did extracurricular internships at the Tybso artisanal tableware factory in Bogotá, Colombia, with the help of entrepreneur and designer Camila Gómez and her invaluable team.

He completed his studies at 34 with a project titled "Ecodesign of a Terralfar Ceramic Tableware," which captured all his values and knowledge. The panel that evaluated it awarded him a first-class honors. Continuing his academic career, Julián is currently studying Chemistry at the UNED (National University of Education) in his quest to continue expanding his knowledge of this material while also promoting his work in scientific circles.

At the same time that Julián began his engineering studies, in 2018, he started working as a self-employed potter in his hometown with the help of his uncle Luis Ortega, who gave him space. Since then, he has worked independently, producing pieces and providing services, mainly educational. He has taught at the Cultural Halls of the University of Extremadura on three occasions. However, his specialty is private wheel-turning classes, allowing him to dedicate his full attention to people who want to learn. It is a source of pride to say that several of those students are now accomplished potters and friends. He has also produced, almost always to order, a wide range of objects, highlighting contemporary tableware in his own style — especially bowls — as well as historical ones, primarily Roman and Punic. On a professional level, his emotional connection to his city has also led him to create trophies for local events, such as Claqueta Emérita , as well as to be part of the spectacular Roman reenactment festival Emerita Lvdica , since 2017, for which he has built his own wheel inspired by that era and where he enjoys teaching children dressed as Romans to get their hands dirty on the wheel. And no less important for him is being a member of FABlab Mérida , a privileged creative space where he contributes what he can to his colleagues and is enriched by everything they all have to share, especially their genuine way of being. And as for his region, he feels very fortunate to be friends with José Antonio Guillén , known as Pirri , frequenting his workshop when he can, and with Ignacio Guillén , both from Salvatierra de los Barros, the pottery capital of Extremadura.

Julián working on the lathe he made for the XII Emerita Lvdica in 2022

In recent years, Julián, following his heart, has had a greater international presence on several continents. Among other notable experiences, he taught workshops and built a short-lived downdraft kiln with reused materials at the Eyckenstein farm in Utrecht, the Netherlands. He also had the privilege and great honor of visiting the century-old porcelain workshops in Arita, Japan, as well as the Saga Ceramics Research Laboratory and other spaces guided by sensei Dr. Katsuki Hiroaki . He was recently selected, along with his partner, Jenny Gil , by El Bastión , in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, to create some scientific outreach sculptures that will be exhibited for the first time in late 2024 on Puerto Rico. But in September of this year, he already exhibited a work on Hispanic Heritage at the Fourth Meeting of Ceramists of Puerto Rico and the Diaspora , thanks to the Keramicos Collective and especially to his friend Rosa Serrano . He has also befriended Puerto Rican potter Yamauco , who taught him the secrets of ocarina making. These days, he's working in Bogotá, Colombia, with Jorge Moreno of Ceramyst , an industrial designer specializing in ceramic machinery. He also collaborates on several artistic projects with painter Gustavo Rico Navarro and functional projects with fashion designer Yulia San Miguel .

In short, to this day, Julián has developed his career as a potter across several continents, with the epicenter in Extremadura, each time focusing on different techniques and delving deeper into different aspects of his profession, always with an endless desire to learn more and share his knowledge with more people.

Finally, during the summer of 2023, he decided to make changes to his business, abandoning the for-profit approach to forming an association. This way, he will continue to focus on the aspects of ceramics that interest him most (dissemination and research) while also pursuing other activities.

In short, a life with clay as its guiding thread, with the world as its stage, but Extremadura as its beginning and end.

You can follow and contact him through his Instagram account: @j_ortegaduran .