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| Chulucanas Pottery is considered in present times as one of the finest ones in the world.
Local handicraftsmen have successfully incorporated contemporary elements to Peruvian millenarian techniques resulting in a unique and elegant worldwide recognized style that seeks to preserve the identity of a town that export its culture to the world.
Chulucanas is a small town located in the Peruvian northern province of Piura. In the late 1960’s after many attempts a group of potters of this community managed to rediscover the techniques employed by their ancestors, the pre-Columbian cultures Vicus that flourished in this area over two thousand years ago.
Agriculture is still the main economic activity of the community; however this is changing due to the growing demand for its pottery. For this reason, some workshops have built larger ovens, standardizing colors, shapes and sizes achieving a larger production capacity.
The first step consists in giving the piece the desired shape using a wood paddle. Enlaces, a mixture of clay and pigments, are then applied to the container.
The polishing process comes as the next step. This is a very delicate process and the final quality of the product depends strongly of its effectiveness. It is made three times by hand and consists in rubbing the surface of the piece with river stones of different sizes and shapes in order to obtain a polished and homogeneous finish.
Once the piece is completely dried, it is then put into a craft oven at a temperature between 700º and 900 ºC (1290º to 1650º F).
For decoration a similar technique to batik called ‘negative’ is used. It consists of applying liquid clay to protect the areas where the base color is to be retained and leave free the ones that are to be darken. The piece is smoked with mango leaves, which act as fuel. In addition, the smoke that is generated darkens the areas that did not receive the enrobes application. Mango leaves also produce a resin that sticks to the ceramic giving it a unique gloss.
In the last stage, the piece is pulled out from the oven, cleaned up and burnished with different waxes in order to obtain a thoroughly polished appearance. |
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