gail sheffield on sat 14 aug 99
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You may recall my earlier post extolling the just-finished arts and crafts =
tour
of Ecuador, led by Clayart moderator Joe Molinaro. Fellow Clayarter Bonnie
Hellman suggested I write more about the trip for Clayart, so I will, in =
several
short (numbered) posts rather than one long one. I'll put the pottery stuff
first so those who aren't interested in more can exercise their Delete keys.
Joe, are you listening? Help me out here if I go astray of the facts.
The trip was the last 2 weeks in July=3B the first 5 days spent in the rain =
forest
in a wonderful eco-tourist lodge on the Rio Napo, a major tributary of the
Amazon. You can see it at www.yachana.com and the sponsoring foundation at
www.funedesin.org. That foundation made the arrangements for this part of =
our
trip. We were 19, led by Joe, who has spent a lot of time in Ecuador
researching pottery, and has made a good video about the method used in the =
rain
forest=3B and by Bill Griffiths, as representative of Arrowmont School of =
Arts and
Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN, which sponsored the trip. The trip was a =
wonderful
price bargain.
The rest of the 2 weeks was spent in various areas of the Andean highlands =
with
a couple of days in Quito, the capitol. The only other Clayarter along was
Dipali Shah, a delightful young lady with a most infectious laugh who just
graduated from university in England.
OK, pottery. We had 3 major ceramic experiences. In the rain forest, we =
had a
demonstration by a lovely indigeneous lady named Rosa, who made several =
items,
most notably a bowl used for the drinking of chicha, an alchoholic beverage =
made
from manioc, or yuca, and fermented with human saliva. The bowls are made =
by
coiling and are very thin-walled. She also had other items besides bowls, =
such
as human-like figurines (some with a mouth on the back of the head, called
juri-juri, their version of the boogeyman to scare the kids with). She also=
had
small ceramic animals, such as frogs, scorpions, beetles, etc. The clay is
either red (decorated with white and black slips) or white (decorated with =
red
and black slips). The item is burnished before the design is =22painted=22 =
on with
a tiny little brush made of several human hairs bound with thread to a tiny
slice of wood. Rosa made brushes for some of us using our own hair, not =
quite
as straight and coarse as that she uses. She made her own by biting off a =
small
clump of hairs from the head of her small daughter, Jasmine, and then =
discarding
the ones she thought unsuitable. She also bit off our hairs for the making =
of
our brushes. With these tiny brushes, she can make incredibly thin lines
freehand. The stylized designs represent the patterns found on snakes and
turtleshells. Most attractive. The item is fired in a larger fired bowl,
heaped over with ashes, etc, and placed in an open fire for a short time. =
(15
minutes?). Because the clay is not fully vitrified, the items are extremely
fragile, and quite a few of the items purchased by our group did not make it
home intact (happily, mine did). When the items are removed from the fire,
while still hot, they are rubbed with the sap of a particular tree, which =
forms
a shiny, glaze-like sealer and makes the bowl waterproof.
Stay tuned for the next episode: the highland town of Cuenca, home of a
foundation promoting ceramics.
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