About: Rita S. Ryan

Follow Artist Rita Ryan's Progress in Clay & Life here click the link below to be re-directed to Rita's Pottery

2.2.09

Mata Ortiz Pottery Workshop Fun

I had the most wonderful opportunity to attend a local workshop featuring Eusabio Ortega and his Beautiful wife Isela Cota Ortega. Eusabio demonstrated the hand building techniques of the Mata Ortiz potters in Mexico. Each pot is hand constructed and takes 4-5 hours to construct. Eusabio starts with a slab set inside a small plaster bowl. He first compresses the bottom of the base to avoid any cracks when drying. As he starts constructing a bowl type base for is piece, he is keeping the walls even as he spins the little plaster bowl in a circle to keep the pot moving. after the piece is tall enough he trims off the top using a simple safety pin edge and rolls out a rather large thick coil. The coil is placed inside the pot around once and his thumbs are then placed inside to allow for opening the pot he pushes his thumbs in and up as he continually spins the pot in a circle, he repeats this several times until he has the height he needs. Then Eusabio starts with his coils on the outside of the pot to start to close up the top and switches his thumbs from the front of the pot to the back of the pot and his thumbs switch to the outside of the pot creating more pressure inwards. Eusabio keeps his hands clean and dry to keep the wet clay from sticking to them. Eusabio's wife Isela Cota quietly sits painting a pot that is dry and has been sanded and burnished. Her hands are steady and she is completely focused drawing line after line, I am sitting directly across from her and am thoroughly amazed at how her design work just keeps coming together. She is drawing a little fellow playing a flute, he is a Raramuri Indian. The Raramuri are a gentle tribe of Indians that have lived in the Upper Sierra for over 10,000 years now. Isela is so incredibly talented with her drawings even her husband is in awe of her. As Eusabio continues his demonstration he tells us the story of the Mata Ortiz people and how everyone in the town has some job related to making pottery, from the small children to the elders. He tells us of the tourist trade and how with the economy slow down here how greatly it affects the people in the town who have relied on the tourist trade. Eusabio also sees as the town young folks grow up with these skills that the young kids take short cuts and sell pots for much less and how this really is having an effect on the marketing of the Mata Ortiz pottery bring the price way down creating more economic stress.
Eusabio is so very generous sharing his knowledge with us; he shows us all the steps from sanding to burnishing (they use horse fat)to firing. He shows us how to make our own clay from clay found practically in our backyards. He works fast and is funny with his stories. The workshop ends and you can tell no one wants to leave, there are plenty of questions still and the day went so fast. The Ortega's sell the one finished piece that they have brought with for the demonstration and I offer to purchase the wonderful piece Isela Cota has been decorating all day. I feel as though this day I got to live a different life, I was transported to Mata Ortiz, Mexico for just a few hours and one cannot put a price on that. What an amazing experience, and now I will have a little bit of Eusabio and Isela Cota Ortega's life in my living room. :o)