CHULUCANAS POTTERY
The history:
Chulucanas, a small village located North of Peru near Ecuador, produces one of the most impressive and unique pottery in the World. Artisans here combine the traditional technique of throwing pots in potter’s Wheels, paint them with natural slips and burnish the pots with cobble stones to get the first shine.
Origins of this unique pottery go back to Pre colombian Vicus culture (400 BC), based in the Northern área of Piura. First ceramics were discovered by illegal diggers in archaeological places near Chulucanas village. In the 60s local potters used fragments of these pre colombian pots as inspiration to either copy old shapes, motifs and colors or créate new ones.
They started making the pots by coiling Rolls of clay and shaping them with a wooden paddle. This “paleta” technique is still used for making large pots.
Potters recovered Vicus techniques such as the positive negative ( or reserve technique), the use of small flat cobble stones to burnish the pots before firing and making a second smoke firing using mango leaves to obtain the Black and brown colors.
Along the decades, potters have added new modern shapes and introduced the potter´s Wheel for bigger productions. Chulucanas pottery is still unique and we keep developing new ideas to extend its life in the global market.
How are pots made?
First pots were shaped with the use of a wooden paddle: huge vases to hold water and chicha (fermented corn beverage), bowls and casseroles for cooking and daily use. In year 2000 Allpa introduced new tools and techniques such as the potter´s wheel, jiggers, slab rollers, molds for casting, improved kilns and new color palettes as a way to increase productivity and improve this pottery´s opportunities in the market.
First firing is made in kilns at 800o C and then fired for the second time using mango leaves as fuel. This last step is what gives the pots an amazing extra shine in combination with the positive negative technique as used in the Vicus pre-Columbian culture (150 BC).
New shapes
Traditional and new shapes are now made by Chulucanas artisans, sometimes keeping their terracotta color and the classic Black and White, now adding modern and subtle greys, beiges and pastels shades, which makes them very well adapted to modern design.
What makes this pottery unique
The smoke firing is what makes this pottery unique because of the special shine that mango leaves resin produce. This technique is specially used for the positive negative effect, reserving the area that the artist wants to highlight in the final pot.
Videos
The Process of a Piece
