This large vessel was created by Reina Simon L. from the village of San Bartolo Coyotepec, using the traditional grey clay of this region that is gathered from the clay mines near the community. While such pottery has been created and used for water vessels, or ollas, for centuries by the Zapotec people of this region, in the 1950s potter Rosa Real Mateo de Nieto started a new process by burnishing her still-wet vessels with a smooth stone to create a high shine on the surface. Combined with the oxygen-reduction atmosphere of the traditional pit firings, the shiny surfaces of these vessels absorbed carbon and turned almost black, and they came to be known as “barro negro” or black clay pottery. While these new techniques made the ollas useless as functional water vessels, the beauty of the finished pieces made them highly desirable in the tourist trade, and a new traditional artform was born.

For more information, you may contact the researcher(s) noted in the title of this exhibit entry, or Dr. Billie Follensbee, the professor of the course, at BillieFollensbee@MissouriState.edu