Do you ever have experiences in life, where at the moment you are in them, a part of your brain starts to record every detail, because you know the experience is changing your soul? It will be a story you tell to friends, a memory that makes you smile when you think about it. Fills your heart with a sort of bigness that reminds you that life is spectacular. Atzompa, and specifically my pottery tour with Rufina, a master potter from Atzompa, is one of those moments.
Atzompa is a satellite community outside of Oaxaca. There are excavated ruins at Atzompa now, which you can visit for free as they are still working on the excavation. There are very few people there and the site offers one of the most spectacular views of the Oaxaca valleys. There are a few really cool things about the site: it flourished between 650 and 850 AD. They discovered a pottery kiln about 2.5 meters underground, which they reconstructed. The current village of Atzompa, 2 kilometers away at the base of the hill, is resident to direct descendants of the original residents of the ruin. 90% of the current population are potters.
So for nearly 1200 years, Atzompa has been producing pottery.
I had signed my visiting friend Kim and I up for a pottery tour through Innovando La Tradition, a not for profit organization working with six different potters in the Oaxaca area to either modernize their process, their product or innovate with them. I had never worked with clay before. When you sign up, you have no idea where you will be going to, but they do tell you that you will have an opportunity to work with clay in some way. Fabulous. Off we go!
On the bus we are advised by our guide, Flor, that we are going to Atzompa. (Super cool!) and we would be working today with Rufina. We arrive at her home and she greets us. I am almost instantly scooped up in her smile and her manner. She is beautiful, and traditional (her smock, her long black hair in braids with blue ribbons) and with a little gleam in her eye that lets you know there is something waiting to be discovered.
Her inner patio is piled high with what looks like dirt. She explains that it is two different kinds of clay, which she mixes together to create her working material. She explains to us that she soaks one type for about a month in water, and it creates a paste which she then mixes by hand in a wheelbarrow with the other type of clay. As she explains this, she drops the wet clay into the barrel and sprinkles the dry clay over top and say to us, "Here, get your hands in there. Work the clay. Get Atzompa in your soul." And that we did. Not only did we knead the clay like dough, we then watched her spin a bowl with nothing more that an inverted clay pot, an old tile, a plate, and her skill. I was mesmerized.
She then takes out a smaller wheel for each of us and again tells us to get our hands in there. From the clay we kneaded, and her 15 minute demonstration, we are now going to make our own bowl (or something). Whoa! There is one potter in our group, but the rest of us have never thrown, worked, spun, touched or molded clay before. After a bit of hesitation, we are in Rufina's trance. She comes over to help and guide, but otherwise we are on our own.
I could have worked all day, but we agree to five more minutes, then wash off and have lunch with Rufina. Her kindness extends through her offering us a wonderful meal, and after we eat, she shows us her kilns. She has her traditional one, dug into the earth and scarred black, broken pottery scattered around and her tools for getting the pots in and out of the fire.
She then shows us "the new babies". These are two modern, new kilns that she has worked for ten years with Innovando and another local artisan who blows glass, to refine. The kilns work on recycled restaurant oil, which she collects from restaurants in and around Oaxaca. She explains that there was a lot of trial and error, to get the kilns hot enough, consistent enough, to make her ceramic. She shares that there were originally 40 potter families involved, she is now the only one. She explains the others were resistant to change and dropped out of the project. Her family encouraged her to continue. I ask her is the change, the work, the challenges excite her. With a gleam in her eye and a sly smile, she answers, "Si!"
Rufina is now involved in a project to go to Belgium as the ambassador for Mexican arts. The group were raising money for her journey. I donated, and I thought it was a good time to share my amazing experience with all of you.
Here is Rufina is a great video about the project.
I would like to take a few workshops with her in the future. My finished product, front left (after it air dried for 30 days and then was fired and I went to pick it up, a total of about 2 months!) was nothing to write home about, but it makes me happy, and I serve guacamole and chips in it with great pride. Kim's is on the right, and Jackie (the only experienced potter) is the one behind. I get to babysit their pieces until the come back home to Oaxaca again.
So for nearly 1200 years, Atzompa has been producing pottery.
I had signed my visiting friend Kim and I up for a pottery tour through Innovando La Tradition, a not for profit organization working with six different potters in the Oaxaca area to either modernize their process, their product or innovate with them. I had never worked with clay before. When you sign up, you have no idea where you will be going to, but they do tell you that you will have an opportunity to work with clay in some way. Fabulous. Off we go!
On the bus we are advised by our guide, Flor, that we are going to Atzompa. (Super cool!) and we would be working today with Rufina. We arrive at her home and she greets us. I am almost instantly scooped up in her smile and her manner. She is beautiful, and traditional (her smock, her long black hair in braids with blue ribbons) and with a little gleam in her eye that lets you know there is something waiting to be discovered.
Her inner patio is piled high with what looks like dirt. She explains that it is two different kinds of clay, which she mixes together to create her working material. She explains to us that she soaks one type for about a month in water, and it creates a paste which she then mixes by hand in a wheelbarrow with the other type of clay. As she explains this, she drops the wet clay into the barrel and sprinkles the dry clay over top and say to us, "Here, get your hands in there. Work the clay. Get Atzompa in your soul." And that we did. Not only did we knead the clay like dough, we then watched her spin a bowl with nothing more that an inverted clay pot, an old tile, a plate, and her skill. I was mesmerized.
She then takes out a smaller wheel for each of us and again tells us to get our hands in there. From the clay we kneaded, and her 15 minute demonstration, we are now going to make our own bowl (or something). Whoa! There is one potter in our group, but the rest of us have never thrown, worked, spun, touched or molded clay before. After a bit of hesitation, we are in Rufina's trance. She comes over to help and guide, but otherwise we are on our own.
I could have worked all day, but we agree to five more minutes, then wash off and have lunch with Rufina. Her kindness extends through her offering us a wonderful meal, and after we eat, she shows us her kilns. She has her traditional one, dug into the earth and scarred black, broken pottery scattered around and her tools for getting the pots in and out of the fire.
She then shows us "the new babies". These are two modern, new kilns that she has worked for ten years with Innovando and another local artisan who blows glass, to refine. The kilns work on recycled restaurant oil, which she collects from restaurants in and around Oaxaca. She explains that there was a lot of trial and error, to get the kilns hot enough, consistent enough, to make her ceramic. She shares that there were originally 40 potter families involved, she is now the only one. She explains the others were resistant to change and dropped out of the project. Her family encouraged her to continue. I ask her is the change, the work, the challenges excite her. With a gleam in her eye and a sly smile, she answers, "Si!"
Rufina is now involved in a project to go to Belgium as the ambassador for Mexican arts. The group were raising money for her journey. I donated, and I thought it was a good time to share my amazing experience with all of you.
Here is Rufina is a great video about the project.
I would like to take a few workshops with her in the future. My finished product, front left (after it air dried for 30 days and then was fired and I went to pick it up, a total of about 2 months!) was nothing to write home about, but it makes me happy, and I serve guacamole and chips in it with great pride. Kim's is on the right, and Jackie (the only experienced potter) is the one behind. I get to babysit their pieces until the come back home to Oaxaca again.
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