Native Clay

Pottery making on Taquile 

In 2020, while we were “stuck” on Taquile during the p*ndemic, I got ahold of both white and red clay and made a few little pots. Fuel is not abundant, so they were never fired—that is, until now. 

Final results were tea and maté offerings for the dining table.

THE PROCESS

Of course, one of the first uses was clay-play with the kids:

Next, I made a fairly ambitious planter with rich texture.  I used a technique with corn cobs to raise the walls, which I had learned years ago from Guatemalan potters in Totonicapán. 

The clay had some small rocks and plant material and took some cleaning.

Some of the process:

I thought it was quite beautiful:

Sadly, it cracked in the drying. Nevertheless, the dry clay was then better cleaned (ridding it of small rocks) for further work on smaller pieces.

I also found some white clay and decided to make simple little boxes for serving a selection of tea bags, pleasant for both for the family and for tourist guests at our homestay dining room. This photo shows it in the raw, unfired state, the texture inspired by Incan rock work:

And the same piece fired:

FIRING 

Our fuel came from grass weeds. Normally these weeds are burned immediately in the field, but I collected a substantial amount and spread it out, turning it frequently, and doing all, I could to knock the soil from the roots.

Silvano helped me bang soil from the dry grass roots, but they were still fairly rich with dirt. We didn’t want to use good firewood, that would normally be used for cooking.

Silvano and I try to get rid of some of the soil clinging to the roots, a dusty job. Note the pile of prepared fuel. 

A smoky fire

We used paper trash as fire starter.

Sam played with the fire to get air to the fuel.

Eucalyptus leaves made some exciting flames.

So did a few dry branches.

After a night of rain, our ash pile was a mud pile and our little boxes were Carbon blackened.

RESULTS

I missed firing this little piece, safely tucked away on the top shelf with the other pottery. The white clay represents the sacred three-leaf coca k’intu. 

SUMMARY 

First, I regret that I forgot to take pictures of the unfired pieces before they went into the combustibles.

The fuel was extremely heavy, mainly because of the soil that was mixed with it. In a future attempt I will pull the pottery to the top of the pile right at the end before putting on the hot flash of the eucalyptus leaves. I think that hot fire could have burned away some of the carbon and given some color variability to the white or red clay.

The clay IS fired. Besides sitting in the rain overnight and remaining intact, I put them on top of the propane burner until a spot turned red with the heat. I was trying to burn off some of the carbon to be able to see the clay color. I got only a very small revelation of that uncarbonated clay. This clay and firing method could certainly be made into cook pots that would work just fine on directly on open flames. I may yet slip them into a wood-burning cook fire and see we can burn away some of the carbon. If I do, I will amend this post and show the final product.

GRATITUDE 

Finally, I’m blown away that this indigenous household was able to safely store raw clay pottery for 3 1/2 years until I was able to come back and fire it. I’m grateful for their kindness and support and for the love that we share.