| Vietri sul Mare, Italy Deborah Absher, ©Stars and Stripes |

A slab of clay begins to take shape under the practiced hands of Vicenzo Scennepieco, who can turn out 300 to 400 cups a day at his potters wheel at Ceramica Giovanni in Vietri sul Mare, Italy. This is the first step of a process that takes about eight hours to complete just one piece of hand-painted pottery.