Women's Pottery Coop on Ometepe Island

There was, at one time, according to the Moon Guide to Nicaragua, a women's pottery cooperative on the island of Ometepe in the village of San Marcos. We put out feelers for this cooperative, trying to find it. After several days of asking around, our guide and driver, Don Chema Jose Maria (who is a native of San Marcos), was able to find only the remnants of the cooperative. It apparently had disbanded and was no longer in operation.

However, we were lucky to find a woman who knew a little about it, and was herself one of the only remaining potters in the area. Dona Angela Carillo (pictured above) gave us a little history, not only about her interesting life, but about the coming and going of the pottery coop. The group was originally formed in the 1990's, and North Americans who had also trained the potters in San Juan de Oriente, came to train the women in San Marcos.

As in any community, organizations and efforts at commercial enterprises come and go. Dona Angela's report was that it was successful for a time, but difficulties between coop members caused the group to fall apart. During the time that it was operating, Dona Angela watched the other women and learned, even though she was not part of the original group that was trained. Today, she, her daughter and her sister (Dona Maria Nieve) are the only potters in their community, and they supply the entire community with pots.

Every stage of the work is very rudimentary. They have no potters wheel, no kiln. Dona Angela demonstrated her method of creating a pot on a form using her hands. It was an amazingly quick process!

Using a wooden form, she molds the pot rapidly with her hands constantly in motion as she twirls the form around. As the pot begins to take shape, she uses a scraper to smooth the inside surface and the rim. Within moments she is finished! The drying and baking process then begins. Without a kiln, Dona Angela simply places the dried pot into a fire on the ground and occasionally turns the pot to distribute the heat of the fire.














Dona Angela is able to make 10-11 pots per day -- from ollas for cooking to water jugs. She
basically supplies her entire community. At the age of 57, she has brought up 5 girls and 5 boys of her own. Her sister, Maria, who is also a potter, is 60 years old, and had 4 boys and 3 girls.

While we visited, a rather large crowd of family and friends gathered, and all were excited to tell us that Dona Angela won a competition in Managua in 1993-94. She was awarded $100 for having the largest ceramic work at the competition! She came back to Ometepe with presents for all -- as generous in her triumph as she is hard-working in her everyday life! Before we left, we purchased several pots from her, including this wonderful lizard water cooling jug.