Archive for the ‘Pottery Videos’ Category

About pottery making and decorative techniques

The bulk of my training as a potter was with a native coastal Ecuadorian peasant woman from the Guayas Basin region. This women, Panchita, made her vessels using the most sophisticated hand forming method I had ever witnessed–a technique that is neither coil, pinch pot nor of slab construction. I call it drag-modeling.   Read the rest of this entry »

Pottery Videos

I filmed this video in September of 2001. It deals with a utilitarian pottery manufacturing tradition typical of the lower Guayas Basin region of coastal Ecuador. The settlement of Las Piñas is located northeast of the city of Daule on the road to El Laurel, the parroquial center.

The method of making pottery for domestic use that you see here is pre-Hispanic. The manufacturing methods of the women potters from Las Piñas owe nothing to the Spanish who introduced the potter’s wheel and the kiln into the Ecuadorian highlands during the 16th century.   Read the rest of this entry »