The Pottery Making Process
Can you imagine creating a highly artistic piece of pottery without ever going to the store for supplies or using a kiln to fire it? Can you imagine using your own hands and materials from the earth to create this pottery?
The many pottery making families in the small town of Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, take pride in using clay that they dig from nearby deposits and grinding local minerals to make their paints.
Preparing the clay at the home of Rosy Sample mineral
Mora and Adán Villalobos
Rosy kneaded the clay to eliminate air pockets and showed me how to hand build, using one of the gesso bowls as a base.
First, we formed “tortillas” and pressed them into the base, then added a “cigar” to build up the sides and created a circular opening.
My pot was ready for the next step of smoothing surface with a used hacksaw blade. Rosy worked on the Christmas ornament (upper right).
The next step was sanding the dried pot (either left on a windowsill on a warm day or at a low temperature in the oven to dry). The opening was sanded to an even circle. The sanded piece was then burnished with a rounded rock or the back of a spoon until it had a polished look (upper right).
Rosy’s daughter, Nancy, sanded a pot that she later burnished and painted herself.
Nancy painted tiny flowers on her pot. Brushes were made by tying children’s hair to a stick. Traditional colors were black and terra cotta and paints were made from ground minerals and oil.
Rosy painting a traditional pattern.
Here the family was involved in the process of pottery making in the shade of a front yard tree.
When several mini pots (or a larger pot) were ready for firing, they were placed in a galvanized bin and elevated on wire coils. Firing was done in a backyard free of vegetation.
After the coals were removed from around the bin, a bent piece of rebar was used to extract the pots from the bin so that they could cool off.
A display of finished pottery by one of Rosy’s sisters
Rosy’s son, Osvaldo, taught me the “sgraffito” technique (from the Italian Renaissance). I painted my pot black, polished it and scratched back into the surface of the pot to create designs of nature near my home in Bajamar. Osvaldo’s designs were taken from nature near Mata Ortiz.
When Adán started showing us the surroundings of Mata Ortiz in his old Ford Bronco, I had no idea that I would become such a welcome guest of the family, nor that Rosy and her mom would teach me to hand build my own pottery piece.
I am still in touch with Rosy via Facebook and all the children have grown up in the 14 years since this photo was taken by my traveling companion, Valentín, who passed away in 2019. I continue to treasure my friendship with Rosy, Adán, Nancy, Osvaldo and Eva.