Members learned hands-on techniques and produced ceramic pieces along with the history and demographics of ceramics in Chiapas
Bridgitte Ordoquy and Xun Pedro Lopez Lopéz teaching a LCS Mudlarks class in Mayan ceramics.
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. Lake Chapala Society’s Mudlarks pottery program hosted two internationally noted experts in Mayan ceramics who walked members through a history and geography of Mayan ceramics in Chiapas with a lecture.slide show and a hands-on class that allowed those attending to make their own Maya-style creations.
Brigitte Ordoquy, originally from France, and now in Chiapas, and Xun Pedro Lopez Lopéz, a native of Chiapas, were invited by Mudlarks Director Jennifer Johnson to the LCS campus in Ajijic. Ordoquy said this is the first time they travelled to teach ceramics, and she was having fun.
“This was my first time teaching this and I am really enjoying it, and enjoying how enthusiastic the people are to learn,” Ordoquy told Laguna, adding that she likes to be in the community and this gave her that opportunity.
Ordoquy was not trained in ceramics; she was a wine sales representatives who traveled to Chiapas and fell in love with the place. After buying a house there, she attended an exhibition of ceramics by Mayan women and, captivated, set off in search of the artists. The search led her through many adventures, both artistic and anthropologic, and she ended up helping the artists with marketing and other business practices, becoming a judge in an artistic competition, and working with the communities to build kilns.
She now helps artists sell their ceramics, including in Tlaquepaque, while she continues to work with the village. According to her, most of the Mayan ceramicists are women, although they sometimes don’t get adequate money or recognition for their work. Interestingly, she noted, many of the males who are working there in Mayan ceramics are young, some being taught by their mothers and grandmothers.
One of those young men is Xun Pedro López López, the young artist from Amatenango del Valle, a small village in Chiapas, who co-taught the class with Ordoquy . Although his English was limited, he demonstrated that, not only is he a talented ceramic artist with a specialty in ceramic jaguars, but an excellent teacher . During the class, he gave demonstrations of how a jaguar or other forms are bult with clay, and then he visited each person in the class, helping them shape their own work. Some of his own pieces, notably black and white spotted jaguars, were on display at the class.
His village is the home of the Tzeltal Maya community , renowned for its ceramics, especially jaguars, an animal prominent in the oral traditions of the Tzotzil and Tzeltal Mayans of Chiapas, often called «tigre» in local Spanish dialects although the original name of the big cat is «balam» which also referred to high priests responsible for reading divine messages.
Xun Pedro López and Ordoquy used a slide show to ground those in the class in the history and demographics of Mayan pottery and ceramic figures. During the class, Ordoquy also explained the differences in clay and the problems of obtaining the right sand and clayneeded for ceramics, and the process of small kiln firing.
Each student produced four pieces, including a jaguar, which will be fired at a West Ajijic kiln over the next two weekends under the Supervision of Mudlarks Program Director Jennifer Johnson.
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