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Ducuale Grande
Ducuale Grande - Condega
Vilma Guevara, Martiza Garcia, Tomasa Garcia, Matilde Cordova, Maria Figueroa, Marina Castellon, Semeona Guevara, Dora Mayrena, Santos Guevara, Juana Matuta
Ducuale Grande has a history in
ceramics - the clay-rich hills nearby made it a
center for rustic, utilitarian pottery
centuries ago. Today, this ceramic tradition
has been kept alive by this hard working group
of women who love what they do.
Maritza is one of the leading members of the cooperative, who has been a member for sixteen years. She first learned the art of working in clay from her mother, who worked in rustic, utilitarian items like pots and comales (surfaces used for making tortillas). When Maritza was twenty, she attended a workshop and learned how to throw plates, mugs and cups on the pottery wheel. She also learned how to decorate the pieces with a lighter colored clay found in the nearby town of Santa Clara.
The women’s pottery cooperative of Ducuale Grande began in 1989 when an idea was started by the Casa Cultura to unite women potters of Ducuale Grande to strengthen their work. At that point, there were only a handful of women still working in ceramics in the town, and they all worked individually. A Spanish potter came to the town to lead pottery
workshops and provide
support in the formation of the cooperative.
From this support, the women were able to get
started selling and slowly began to build the
workshop they are in now. In the beginning,
twenty women were taught the ceramic techniques
and integrated into the cooperative. Of these,
only three ended up learning the difficult
practice of throwing on the wheel, a fact that
Maritza is very proud of. There are now ten
active members still carrying on this
tradition.
The female potters still carry out the same practice of their ancestors of collecting the clay from the nearby hills and mixing it with water, river sand and a local pigment, tague. Each piece is burnished with river stones before it is fired, then a special pre-Columbian decorating technique is applied and it is re-fired to create its unique surface. The women made the kilns they use today- forming bricks out of the same clay to build up the beehive shaped kilns. The women tend to the firing of all their pieces themselves- whereas in other areas of the country, the firing is always the men’s task.
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Vilma Guevara, Martiza Garcia, Tomasa Garcia, Matilde Cordova, Maria Figueroa, Marina Castellon, Semeona Guevara, Dora Mayrena, Santos Guevara, Juana Matuta
Maritza is one of the leading members of the cooperative, who has been a member for sixteen years. She first learned the art of working in clay from her mother, who worked in rustic, utilitarian items like pots and comales (surfaces used for making tortillas). When Maritza was twenty, she attended a workshop and learned how to throw plates, mugs and cups on the pottery wheel. She also learned how to decorate the pieces with a lighter colored clay found in the nearby town of Santa Clara.
The women’s pottery cooperative of Ducuale Grande began in 1989 when an idea was started by the Casa Cultura to unite women potters of Ducuale Grande to strengthen their work. At that point, there were only a handful of women still working in ceramics in the town, and they all worked individually. A Spanish potter came to the town to lead pottery
The female potters still carry out the same practice of their ancestors of collecting the clay from the nearby hills and mixing it with water, river sand and a local pigment, tague. Each piece is burnished with river stones before it is fired, then a special pre-Columbian decorating technique is applied and it is re-fired to create its unique surface. The women made the kilns they use today- forming bricks out of the same clay to build up the beehive shaped kilns. The women tend to the firing of all their pieces themselves- whereas in other areas of the country, the firing is always the men’s task.
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