Felipe Makes a Pot and I Get to Watch

On the day we left Ojo Caliente and La Madera we returned to Owl Peak Pottery to pick up pots which we had purchased, and Iwas fortunate to be in the studio with Felipe as he made a traditional bean pot from the native micaceous clay.

It was a treasured interval of time to watch Felipe make pots. In this photo at the left, he builds the wall of the pot with coils. In the photo below, he is shaping the pot from the inside with a rib tool. He said "I tell my students that the beauty of a pot is not the outside shape. The inside shape is the beautiful soul of the pot." The finished pot is drying on the woodstove. Next it will be coated with micaceous slip, polished with sandstone and then fired in a wood fire. After this first firing, a corn blessing is offered then the pot is returned to the fire to call in the fire clouds, the black and silver colorations that are unique to each pot. Only then, after all the forming, polishing and firings, Felipe signs his pot.