Friday was a tour of the major artisan villages. The highlight (for me anyway) was the potters village where they specialize in making a highly burnished "Barro Negro"-- black pit-fired ware. The demonstration is done by Valente Real, the son of Dona Rosa, who is credited with inventing this special pottery. There is another link here that validates my impression that this is done with simple techniques that are easy to reproduce, but the village is proud of its heritage and I was more polite than the author of the given website than to ask all the nosy questions ;)
The trick is the quality of the clay, which is sturdy, but obviously very free of impurities to burnish so well. After forming, the pottery is allowed to set up for nearly a month until it is very nearly green. Then it is burnished to a fine shine, perhaps with oils. It is fired lower than other indiginous pottery in good reduction, which gives it the deep nocturnal black of the finished ware.
I didn't think Valente looked bored at all, but he is very quick! Some of my shots were too blurry to post, but he forms the raw pot in about 5 minutes, talking up a storm the whole way. I caught some phrases that I understood: that he was forming the pot using the traditional manner, not like in the "escueles des artes!" Yah, we all know about those art school types.
Once he's done decorating the pot, he picks up the one that that's been setting up all month, so you can see him burnish it. It gets a lovely gloss. The picture with the bouganvillea is a shot of the studio and gallery. It is a family run co-op.
The weaver's village is also a collective. It was a little more touristy, with all the vendors whispering "buy, buy, buy..." I got a great table runner for mom there. We went into one of the little side shops and I got an embroidered shirt like one of the ones in the final picture below.
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