Made in the Canary Islands

"I like being a potter. I converted a tradition into my profession, my job, and I'm proud of it. I mean, look, not everyone has a gold medal of the Canary Islands, you know?"

“It's a family tradition so it was handed down to me: my aunt, my grandmother, my great grandmother … they were all potters. I did a bit of ceramics at home, as my mother did, and then we would sell the pieces to the studio that was open at the time. After a while my mother and I decided to open our own studio.”

Pottery was a profession practiced exclusively by women in La Gomera, and the skill was passed down from mothers to daughters. “Here in La Gomera at least, it is only women who work in pottery. It was frowned upon if men worked in ceramics. The men's job was to go and get the clay, which was a more physically demanding task. And so the women were the ones actually making the ceramics. And it has continued like that.”

It is a tradition in which unique items are painstakingly created by hand, without the use of molds or wheels, and fired in a stone kiln fueled with local wood. “Although we might make the same item 10 times in a day because it's a handmade process, no piece is ever exactly the same: one might be more rounded, another a little smaller, another a bit taller …”

“They make ceramics on all of the islands, as we do, but on La Palma, for example, they are burnished with oil. We don't do that; we use water, which is the traditional way. It means it's not as shiny, it's more rustic looking.”

Years ago, the women of El Cercado would use their ceramics to trade for food or other basic items. Once money moved into domestic use, the ceramics were ditched. “[Potters] used to walk barefoot on the streets; they tied fern leaves onto their feet to walk, and they would travel to other towns to barter.”

They have to go and fetch the clay from the cliffs, pound it, mix it with sand, gather wood for the firing … Their husbands and sons help them with these tasks; if they didn't “it would be impossible.”

“It is tricky to find the clay because it is buried underground; you have to walk to the cliffs to search for it, focusing on the areas where cracks have opened up in the soil. Then, you have to dig a hole around a meter deep to see if there is any clay. And sometimes there is, and sometimes there isn't.”

The wood to fuel the kilns is gathered from the mountain; it is collected, chopped, and prepared. “We have to obtain licenses in order to gather the wood. There are always people working here on the mountain, in Garajonay, and they are always chopping down pine trees, or other trees that have died.”

The "Gomera dinnerware" comprises 12 traditional pieces. Each item was used for a specific everyday function: to collect milk, to mix roasted cornmeal, to roast chestnuts, to transport water … “These pieces are the fundamentals of the store, but I also make other things.”

“All sorts of people. Many of them come from the other islands, especially in the summer. But we also get French, German, and Italian tourists … The foreigners come with their guidebooks to La Gomera, which include our ceramics, and then they come looking for the studio. Some come via the interpretation center in the town, while others seek us out directly.”

María del Mar believes it depends on the person, but explains that those who buy ceramics do so because they recognize the work that goes into it, and understand its value. “Today, with all our advances and the way our lives have changed, people are drawn to the fact that we're still making ceramics in the traditional way.”