In 1966, Georgina, my mother made his first attempts at decoration on earthenware Fox Amphoux (Var) where my father is a teacher. It performs traditional decorations on baked enamel Moustiers (a technique called "low heat" in the Workshop Carle Barjols (Var).
In 1967 Michael Fine, my uncle moved to Fox Amphoux. He initiates himself to decoration. He opened a boutique for decoration at the center of the old village.
Alain and his wife Vagh Jacotte, manufacturers of floor tiles at Salernes (Var), ordered to Georgina in 1969, a series of 50 plates based on a project from Ronald Searl, English cartoonist.
The shop at Fox Amphoux was closed in 1974 whereas my brother Vania and I we were learning decoration. We then opened a shop at Bauduen near the lake of Sainte Croix du Verdon.
Unable to obtain the electric power needed to supply a kiln, we decided to make our own cookie and we left Bauduen in 1976 to move to Moustiers Sainte Marie (city of faience) in Alpes de Haute Provence, with the help of Mr Jean Hubert, merchant in the village.
My brother Vania joined us the following year and became the turner, my mother and my uncle became the designers, and myself was the enamel stamper and in charge of the cooking. Then followed Isabelle, the wife of my brother, and my own wife Muriel. Patrica Guillon became our apprentice and stayed with us nearly 10 years.
In 1978 my uncle Jean Louis Michel, joined the beautiful family-run workshop and the pieces were signed J.M.V. Moustiers Fine.
In 1978 Roland Delcol, hyper-realistic belgian painter proposed to perform himself the scene of a series of pieces that are now available in our gallery at Moustiers like Picasso in Paris with Madura. Fruitful collaboration lasted four years.
Other artists have been invited by the workshop, to express themselves freely on faience : Yves Nioré, Michel Richard, Carroll Bertin, Jean Charasse, Soft-Sillas Marceau, Catherine Viollet, Jean Jacques Ceccarelli, Andrew Lauro, Beppo, Bernard Morteyrol, Franta, Xenakis, without forgetting Georgina, Michel and Denys Fine.
In 1988 all these contributions were gathered in a "Tribute to Picasso" with the works of 27 artists which initiated several exhibitions from Moustiers to Bitche in Lorraine through Marseille, Toulon, Leinfelden (Germany) , Montellupo Florentini (Italy) and Martigny, -Gianadda Foundation (Switzerland).
A book published in 2008, by the association "Free Entry" entitled "Fine JMV: Faience workshop at the end of the twentieth century" tells in detail the story of the workshop.