Kybele Boutique Ceramic — Local services in Avanos

My wife and I loved this experience. Cost us roughly $12 dollars per person through GetYourGuide.

It was a group of 6 people. We were met kindly by the people who worked there who offered us drinks including turkish tea and coffee.

The person (sadly I have forgotten his name, but an older gentleman), leading our visit met us and talked to us about the history of ceramics in Cappadocia and especially their family experience in the trade.

Then we all got a chance, roughly 5-10 minutes each to try making a small ceramic piece using their wheel. They had an expert, a younger man who was brilliant, ask us what we wanted to make and helped us do it! He was very clear in his instructions and I managed to make a bowl!

We were then showed the process of how they make ceramics, the painting and decorating, and each different type of ceramics that they produce.

We were then offered a 50% discount for the items they were selling, which made some really great pieces more affordable for us!

Would definitely recommend this experience to a friend who has around 1 hour spare to do something fun!

P.S. I didn't make the attached photo obviously, but it shows the quality of work...

We went as a group of three. The staff were quite friendly. We chose the full experience, pottery shaping and painting. The pottery shaping was some great historical info, a really impressive demo by a young man with a lot of skills. Then we each got a few minutes of the young man doing most of the work and telling each of us to put our hands in certain spots on the clay for a few seconds. I will say he’s very talented. It’s not really an experience of learning how to or really making anything yourself, though. Then the pottery painting portion was being led into a room with 10 pigments, a 4x4” white tile, 2 brushes, and a pencil each. We were told we had 25 minutes to draw or paint what we wanted. The best part was being able to watch the real artisans paint with incredible skill in the same room. They took our tiles and sprayed a thin layer of varnish on them so we could take them home. Then got walked through several rooms of their very beautiful wares. Everything is priced in US$ and even a small plate is over $200, out of my price range. The apple tea was delicious. Overall, though, I wouldn’t recommend it, and would have spent my money doing...

Murtaza and everyone here is awesome! We did the pottery workshop, which involved 1) a brief overview of the history of pottery in the area stretching back to the Hittites, 2) a look at the different types of pottery made at this location, where the sixth and seventh generations of the family are working together, 3) a demonstration of a complicated design for a circular wine decanter, 4) a chance to try making a simple pot (it was hard 😭 but the instructor was really good and patient), and 5) a tour of EIGHT different rooms with different styles of pottery and designs.

Murtaza kindly showed us each room, answered all our questions, and helped us choose (ahem, gently bullied us into choosing 😂) a few pieces to purchase and take home (but we truly felt no obligation to buy - everything in there is just so so tempting).

Yes, the pieces are expensive, but it takes years of experience and so much time and skill to make and paint them. I already know these are going to be my favorite souvenirs...