TBG and El Tour

The Tucson Botanical Gardens hosted several Mata Ortiz potters last weekend. Mata Ortiz potters live in Paquime, Mexico and make some of the most beautiful decorated pottery ever. The technique was developed by Juan Quesada some 40 years ago. As it gained popularity, Juan taught others in Paquime to make the same type of pottery. Today, the pots get prices that are much higher, but still reasonable compared to the Pueblo potters.

The photo above shows Manolo, a potter, setting his fire around his pot, which is inside the upside down bowl under the sticks. He's adding cow chips around the outside, which when lit, will increase the temperature of the fire to around 1500 degrees. The photo below shows him lighting the fire. As I watched him, it reminded me of Boy Scouts, but when I saw him dousing the sticks and chips with lighter fluid, the Boy Scout image disappeared!

Below shows the fire in full flame. Manolo kept propping up the sticks and chips that fell down, so as to keep the fire going as long as possible. The firing process took about 30 or 40 minutes. When the fuel finally all burned up, it was necessary to let the pot cool down. That took another 30 minutes or so.

This is the pot he fired. It looks kind of ugly right now, with the ashes on it, but it will turn a reddish color when cool. It was a plain gray before the firing. This was an oxidizing fire (oxygen allowed in to the pot area), which turns their clay red after firing. A reducing fire  (oxygen not allowed in the pot area( will turn the clay black The figure on the top of the pot is a lizard, actually an iguana.

Note the very detailed drawing on the pot. It's drawn with a hair, a yucca string or other things. It's amazing how detailed the painting can be with such crude tools.

Weekend before last was our annual El Tour de Tucson, a bicycle race. There are four different lengths, the longest 109 miles, then 66, etc. The course is the same for all four, just with different start points. The 109 mile track goes more or less around Tucson. We are a very hilly area, because of all the washes and rivers, so the race involves lots of going up and going down hills. There were about 8,000 entrants! Bicycle racing is big in Tucson. We see racers out practicing every day. They ride on city streets, go up and down Mt. Lemmon (9,000 ft), out to the Desert Museum and more. Too much for me, but it sure makes interesting watching.