The Technique of Potterymaking

Two videos, several books and articles to the contrary, there is no one way to make Mata Ortíz pottery. We can only generalize because each artist/artisan has his or her own idiosyncrasies. Carmen Velóz renders her thin lines with quick deft movements of one hand, while Nicolás Quezada carefully steadies his right hand with the left. Both create beautiful works. Some potters fire with cottonwood, others with kindling--each states his way is better. This individuality, within a larger framework, is part of the magic of Mata Ortíz ceramics.

There are six parts in the framework: preparing the raw materials, making, sanding, polishing, painting and firing the earthenware.

Raw Materials

Virtually all the materials used in creating Mata Ortíz earthenware are naturally, as opposed to commercially, produced. The clays and ingredients for paint are mined from caches in the valley and the encircling Sierras. The brushes are made from strands of children's hair (sometimes cat hair is used) attached to sanded pieces of cottonwood, or inserted into the casings of old ballpoint pens. Fuel for firing depends on a potter's preference: usually dried cow dung, kindling or the bark of the cottonwood tree. On occasion, I have even seen dried corn cobs used.

The clay and materials for paint need preparation, of course, before they can be used. Often several potters--members of the same family, or perhaps friends--will go together to collect the clay. Back in Mata Ortíz, the booty will be divided and each will return to his or her own home to soak and filter the clay or prepare the paint for use. With materials at the ready, the craftsperson can bring life to the clay.

Forming the Pot

The potter will decide on the size of olla to make and set aside an appropriate plaster mold to use as a base. A lump of prepared clay is kneaded and flattened into a round "tortilla" by patting it with the hands and/or rolling it out with a wooden rolling pin. This tortilla is gently placed into the mold and tamped into place. Excess clay above the rim of the mold is trimmed off with a knife.

The coil is the next step. Most potters create a long roll with another piece of clay, which encircles the clay in the mold. The pot is built upwards by pinching and pulling the clay with thumb and fingers. Depending on the size of the pot, one or more coils may be added. Some artists, such as brothers Saul and Ramiro Velóz, don't use coils at all, merely stretching the original clay in the mold as high as possible to create small but incredibly thin pieces.

Once at the desired height, the pot is smoothed and thinned further with a variety of implements--spoons, knives, pieces of shell or plastic. Then the clay form is set aside to dry. Depending on the season, that may take from a few hours to a few days.

Sanding

Sanding is the dirty work. After the clay form is leather hard and dry, most potters will sand the outside of the olla and inside the lip to smooth, and further thin out, the pot. Some potters don't sand at all, preferring to smooth the pot with a knife as much as possible while the clay is still wet. Consolación Quezada uses this technique.

Two or three different grades of sandpaper are used, progressing from coarse to fine. It is a laborious task. I once saw Matilde Quezada, wife of Lalo, sitting on a concrete stoop with 11 pots lined up like children waiting for haircuts. Each pot took 20 minutes to sand and she completed the lot at one sitting. The work is dusty and a certain amount of powder is respirated. Well-meaning visitors have tried to introduce surgical masks to the potters. They are politely accepted but rarely used.

Polishing

Sanded and cleansed of dust, the vessel is ready for polishing, another painstaking chore. The luster of good Mata Ortíz pottery is achieved in one of two ways. The most common method is to coat the pot with an oil, usually called aceite de comer. There are several explanations regarding the type of oil with some claiming it is a mineral oil, others olive oil. (Once, Nicolás Quezada was in Phoenix for a demonstration and discovered he had forgotten his oil. We bought a bottle of extra virgin olive oil and he said it worked fine.)

The oil is lightly rubbed over the whole pot and allowed to dry. Then a smooth stone, such as the tumbled stones found in rock shops, is rubbed briskly back and forth over the pot. The oil prevents the stone from scratching the clay. Often a potter will place a piece of plastic wrap between the burnishing stone and the pot to further protect the clay. This process may be repeated several times. Some potters use other materials as polishers. Juan Quezada began using a piece of deer bone around 1991.

A number of craftspersons will use a graphite and oil solution--one of the few examples of a commercial product being employed--on blackware to give the finished pot a silver-black sheen. Potters such as Macario Ortíz and Ruben Lozano create incredible blackware pieces which glisten and sparkle, demanding attention. While the pieces are spectacular, some potters dismiss the style. "The pots won't last," Nicolás Quezada sniffs in disdain.

Painting

In some families, one person forms the vessel and another paints. This is true for Angela and Roberto Bańuelos. Wife makes, husband paints. Ramiro Velóz creates feather-light, paper thin jars six to eight inches high. His wife, Sylvia, did all the painting until she succumbed to cancer in 1991. Ramiro tried painting but had little success. Now his 17-year old son, Ramiro Jr., paints the vessels and does so with a flair equal to that of his mother. Many others, such as the Quezadas and Carmen Velóz, form and paint their own earthenware.

Using a thin brush with only a few long bristles of a child's hair, the artist first lays down the calles or streets which form the outline of the design. With some, the left hand steadies the right hand as a slender line is traced with paint onto the pot. For all, the brush is lifted off the vessel in the reverse direction to which the painter began the line.

No outline is used, no template is prepared ahead of time. Every potter I know said the design comes from the mind as it is being applied.

Designs are usually in two or four parts, echoes of the diametrically opposed side. Roberto Bańuelos specializes in three-part designs, which makes each element more difficult to replicate. The shapes usually come from a learned bank of forms each potter "owns" in his mind which are based on the traditional and prehistoric Casas Grandes designs. Others, such as Gloria Hernandez enjoy creating fantastic animals on their pots.

After the design is laid out, areas are filled in, usually with black or red paint. A thicker brush, with stubbier, yet still soft, bristles is used for this process. After the paint has dried the painted parts--even the pencil-thin lines--are polished with the artist's favorite tool, be it stone, bone or steel rod. Now the vessel is ready for the most dangerous step, firing.

Firing

Depending on the potter, many hours and several days may have passed since the clay was first formed into the tortilla and the vessel was born. The final step, firing, passes relatively quickly, but it is an uncertain process. The pot can break from flaws in the clay walls that have remained hidden or from a fire which is too hot. The vagaries of weather only add to these headaches. Wind or rain can force the fire to flare or die. I once saw Nicolás Quezada's family holding a blanket over the fire during a rainstorm as Nic removed a perfect whiteware from the quemador or kiln.

Colored pieces are usually fired individually, while the number of blackware vessels fired at one time is governed only by the size of the quemador. In recent years, more potters are firing groups of small polychromes together.

First the earthenware is pre-heated in the potter's oven for an hour or more. (Potters in one barrio, Porvenir, pre-heat theirs outside by an open fire). Then the vessel is rushed from the oven, placed on a small metal stand of three nails and covered by the quemador. Fuel--dried cow chips, kindling, bark of the cottonwood--is piled over the makeshift kiln and ignited with the help of a little kerosene. After 20 or 30 minutes, the remnants of the coals are knocked away and the piece is allowed to cool slowly. The finished vessel is finally ready for sale after being washed in clean water.

Blackware is fired in the much the same manner. However, the quemador, a metal tub in this case, is sealed at its base with sand or dirt so no air may enter during the firing. Sawdust or ground cow chips are placed in the kiln beneath the pots. The heat of the fire causes a spontaneous combustion inside which consumes all the oxygen. This creates a chemical change in the ferrous oxide indigenous to the clay and the vessel turns black.

The whole process, from gathering the clays to firing the completed earthenware is called la lucha, the struggle, by the potters. When the perfect pieces are pulled from the fire, there is still an important part of la lucha that remains--selling the ceramics. But, that is another story . . .

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