Gallery: One Designer's Crusade to Save Oaxacan Pottery From Extinction
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Civilizations throughout the world are known for their pottery. Oaxaca, a state in central Mexico, is one of them. Today, the tradition is threatened by the global proliferation of cheap plastic products.
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Kythzia Barrera, a designer whose great-grandmother was from Oaxaca, is working on reenergizing the local pottery economy. Her non-profit Innovating Tradition, and its retail arm, Colectivo 1050º, are her institutional efforts at doing that.
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Like its name implies, Innovating Tradition upholds the ancient craft by finding ways to update it for the modern world. That happens mostly through workshops, where local artisans exchange ideas and share techniques, many of which were passed down generations.
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Barrera and her co-founder, Diego Mier y Terán, encourage the 45 artisans in the program to consider the way life has changed over the years. “We believe that objects need to change to survive,” Barrera says. “Food is different, houses are different, the way we go to work is different.”
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The finished products are sold through Colectivo 1050º. There are traditional wares mixed with updated products. These "Little Pigs" snack bowls are in the "Classics" collection, and were sold at MoMA's design store in New York.
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Oaxaca is largely known for a distinct style called barro negro, or black clay, that’s black in color and latticed in pattern. Many of the newly made products here, however, are made from red clay.
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The history and lore of mezcal, the agave-based spirit that's produced largely in Oaxaca, is a big presence in the region. These little cups are "mezcaleritos."
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“Turning mud into beauty,” to echo the tagline on Colectivo 1050º’s online shop, is meant to appeal to high-end markets, whose patronage largely funds Innovating Tradition’s operations. Barrera sees Colectivo 1050º’s ceramics as similar to textiles from Peru or Bolivia: sumptuously gorgeous crafts that have cachet because they can only be made authentically in one place.
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This cosmopolitan-minded consumerism is what keeps the project afloat. The more orders Colectivo 1050º takes, the more artisans Innovating Tradition can hire, and the more artisans they hire, the more likely it is the artisans’ children will take up pottery, too, and preserve the craft.
