Uruguay · Researched pre-Columbian hand-built and painted ceramic forms
Cerámica de Formas Ancestrales
The study, reproduction and reinterpretation of pre-Columbian ceramic forms and techniques of the Americas, such as an Andean-style maternal figure cradling a bowl, a triangle-banded vessel echoing Diaguita ceramics, and a fine, dark incised jar with dense figurative bands. The documented practitioner, María Carolina Muiño, has researched 'las formas ancestrales de hacer cerámica de los pueblos originarios de toda América' for 27 years since training at UTU Pedro Figari, studying with master ceramicists in Argentina, Mexico and Spain; she teaches in schools across Uruguay (and did so during three years in Mexico) and sells at national and international fairs, including Dinapyme's 'Manos del Mundo' in Mexico.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not Applicable — no UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage inscription exists for this craft at time of writing
Glazed ceramic sculpture in a gently anthropomorphic, whimsical figurative style (round-faced figures with plants growing from their heads, embracing cat couples in matching scarves, small animal families in soft rounded forms, a two-faced…
Utilitarian ceramics cut and assembled into sharply angular, asymmetric forms (a teapot with a wing-like triangular tail fin, a plate with a sail-shaped raised divider), glazed in deep blue and teal with terracotta-red accents, so that…
Ceramics spanning hand-painted figurative vessels (tall, cartoon-featured faces with oversized eyes, glasses, mustaches and rosy cheeks), finely painted botanical planters and cups, stoneware coffee sets with stamped triangle decoration,…
Fashion accessories made from natural raw materials and upcycling that draw on Uruguay's gaucho and maritime traditions: a coiled straw or rush bag with a polished horn handle, dense woven sheepskin totes, and a sheepskin backpack with a…
Contact printing (eco-print) on natural fiber: leaves, roots and flowers, together with metal oxidation, are pressed against the cloth to stain and mark it directly rather than dyeing it by immersion, so that each garment comes out unique.
Blocking and shaping 100% wool felt into wide-brimmed hats in a gaucho-influenced Uruguayan style: creased, pinched crowns, rolled or flat brims, solid colors such as chocolate brown, deep crimson and aubergine, and braided leather or…
The specialized clay-extraction and material-selection practices underlying hand-built pottery among Hausa and Zarma potters of Niger, documented through direct peer-reviewed ethnoarchaeological fieldwork.
The molding and open-firing of swamp clay into household pottery by women of the Nyenno clan across The Gambia's Upper and Central River Regions, formally documented in the country's own National Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory…
The hand-building, without a potter's wheel, of unglazed earthenware vessels -- including the jebena coffee pot -- by women potters of the Ari people, southern Ethiopia, and, separately, by the women of the Kechene Women's Pottery…
Application of five or more richly colored enamel glazes over a fired white porcelain base, fired multiple times to fix each color.
A hand-painted ceramic tradition of the village of Gzhel, southeast of Moscow, whose signature deep cobalt-blue floral motifs on pure white porcelain are invisible until the kiln reveals them — the cobalt oxide pigment appears black,…
Stoneware pottery made from iron-rich clay unique to Dan Kwian village on the Mae Klong River, Nakhon Ratchasima.