Draft:Chililico pottery

Chililico pottery on temporary exhibit at the Museo de Arte Popular (Museum of Folk Art) in Mexico City.

Chililico pottery is a type of pottery with intricate motifs created with rudimentary techniques, same as the ones used in pre-hispanic times. This type of pottery is made in the town of Chililico, located in the municipality of Huejutla de Reyes, state of Hidalgo, Mexico. The most renowned pieces are the red clay pots, painted in cream colors and decorated with dark brown motifs. It’s mostly a women's activity, since men only collaborate in the extraction operations, clay and firewood hauling, and firing.

Geographic and cultural environment

Chililico is located in the municipality of Huejutla de Reyes, located in the Huasteca region northeast of Hidalgo, within the Northern Gulf Coastal Plain, where the lowest altitude in the state is found. Its topography consists mainly of small hills and gently sloping terrain.

It has a warm and humid climate, suitable for agriculture and livestock raising. There are timber-yielding trees such as cedar, mahogany and mexican rosewood, used in furniture making. This region is mainly inhabited by the Nahuas, who speak a variant of Nahuatl, known as Huasteca Hidalguense Nahuatl.

Landscape of the Huasteca Hidalguense region.

Production

Raw materials

Clay miniatures in Chililico.

There are two clay deposits in communal land where the raw material needed for pottery production is extracted: Zocuilteco, an annex near Chililico, and La Peña, located within the town. In order to carry out the extraction, the community judge must be informed. These two deposits were purchased by the local population at the start of the 20th century, approximately. As for the origin of the colorants, natural minerals are the artisans’ first choice, industrial ones come in second, while vegetal and animal dyes are rarely used.

Besides orange clay, it is common to use other clays with characteristic colors as dyes in Chililico pottery, such as black, brown, white, and red clays. Some of these are: white clay or chipahualtzóquitl, and red clay or chichiltzókitl. In addition, black stones, known as tatazoquit or tahuit, ground in a mealing stone and mixed with water, are also used for painting and are applied in the same way as the colored clays.

Firewood is another raw material essential for the kilns. The firewood is set to dry for 15 days, and then it’s treated with fire. Any type of firewood can be used, except for the one from avocado trees, since “the utensils turn purple, they don't whiten.”

Crafting tools

Rustic paintbrushes used for decoration.

Amongst the pre-hispanic tools is the tamascoyanti, a rudimentary pottery wheel used to make round-shaped vessels when spinning on itself. The atet is a canoe-shaped clay burnisher that smoothes and throws the inner part of the vessels. The atemimile is a burnisher used to smooth the outer part of the vessels.

Contemporary tools include those of plant, animal, mineral, and synthetic origin. Though not modern, they are considered to be contemporary because they are not of pre-hispanic origin, and their use may date back to the 16^th century. Among the tools of animal origin, there is a paintbrush made with three or four chicken feathers tied together that is used to paint the motifs with either oil paint or natural colorants.

Tools of vegetable origin are crafted mainly with fine wood such as cedar and oak. The main ones are the following:

• The jícara or calabash container (tzicatl, otecómitl) is used to thin out the piece in the throwing process, while it is still raw.
• The corncob (elotl) is used to thin and smooth the piece in the throwing process.
• The vine basket (chiquihuite), made of vine or other fibers, is used to carry the pieces either to the kiln or to the selling point.
• The pulley (timaitl), roughly three meters long, is used to manipulate the pieces in the kiln and to remove the firewood during firing.

Artisan decorating clay.

When the clay is delivered to the artisans’ homes or workshops, it is placed on a plot, or sometimes on a cement board, and left to sun-dry for one or two days; during this process, large stones are removed from the clay. Then, the clay is placed in a tub with water and it is beaten. This mixture goes through a sieve to sift out the solid and large parts. Once the rocks and impurities have been removed, the clay is spread out again on the ground, under the sunlight, in order to lose humidity.

Once the clay has lost enough water, it is picked from the ground and rolled up on itself. It is placed inside the house and covered with plastic sheeting or sacks to prevent it from losing moisture, so as to work it as needed. At this stage, the clay can be stored for relatively long periods of time.

Pots inside the kiln in Chilico.

When the clay acquires a pasty consistency, it is kneaded to give it greater plasticity, and clay ‘patties’ of varying thicknesses are formed. These are later used to make objects with the help of molds that have thin layers of ash applied to them, in order to prevent the clay from sticking.

The mold is held with the left hand, and with the right hand, it is compressed and beaten against the mold. Then, with a damp cloth acting as a smoother, the surface of the object is rubbed and polished. As the clay protrudes due to its compression against the mold, it is important to trim it. Once the excess clay has been compacted, smoothed and trimmed, the piece is removed from the mold and placed on a plank to dry.

After sun-drying them, the pieces are decorated. This part of the process is called “varnishing” and consists of applying different shades of colored clay. Decorating is a female activity, though there are few cases in which men also participate. It is a skilled activity that not all potters master. To decorate, it is necessary to use a rustic paintbrush made with chicken feathers, called piyo. The designs are nature motifs, such as floral, animal, and geometric shapes stylizations, all passed down from generation to generation. The dyes are prepared in a lebrillo (earthenware basin) with water to which ground clay of different tones is added.

Once they have been painted, they are placed in the sun again to allow the clay-dye to incorporate well enough and adhere to the object during firing. Throughout the firing process, firewood is gradually added until the desired temperature is reached. The firing process begins with the hauling of the pieces to the kiln and ends when the artisan notices that the earthenware fragments placed on top turn white. This process lasts about six hours, and it is then when they stop stoking the kiln and let it rest until the firewood is consumed for the rest of the night.

Characteristics and uses

Xumo made of clay (container for liquids).

Their main feature lies in the decoration, which involves the use of different shades of mud —black, brown, red or white— as colorants. Some pieces are completely coated with one of these colors (mainly white and red), both on the outside and inside, which is applied with a cloth, and on which the motifs are applied.

Most of the production is sold during the Christmas festivities, Holy Cross Day in May, the Holy Week, when water is blessed for the whole year, and in Xantolo (a regional Day of the Death festivity). The consumption of these objects is not restricted to the context of day-to-day use; an important consumption of these pieces is meant for ritual purposes, which is why several miniature objects are made to decorate the altars of the deceased in the feast of Xantolo. The ritual purpose of these objects is not exclusive to the Nahuas. For example, during the feast of the Santa Campana de Tutotepec at the municipality of San Bartolo Tutotepec, located in the Sierra Otomí Tepehua, the Otomí make flower offerings inside water jugs.

Pottery includes pieces such as pots, vases, earthen vessels, cooking utensils, molcajetes, piggy banks, incense burners, candelabrums and baked clay toys. Other pieces are ollules, which are a type of water jug used for drinking water in fields; botijas (a type of jug made of clay) in the shape of leaves and plants; ocarinas to call children on All Saints' Day; and a variety of pots, including popochcometls and chichapales, which are used to carry water.

Gallery

• 
  Vase and pot.
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  Sahumerio.
• 
  Pots.
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  Plates.
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  Deep plate.