Fund a Smokeless Wood Kiln to Help Revive Mayo Pottery
Donation protected
Hello! We're potters asking for help raising funds to help fellow potter Juany Gámez from Masiaca, Sonora, Mexico revive the craft in her Indigenous Mayo community so that their ceramic tradition can persist for the benefit of future generations.
Juany is the last potter in her Mayo community.
Ancient Mayo pottery traditions have been passed down from generation to generation for almost two millennia. Mayo pottery dating from around 200CE has been found in Huatabampo, Sonora, Mexico. This tradition is on the brink of disappearing.
Her mission is so important that La Escuela Nacional de Cerámica in Mexico (The National School of Ceramics) initiated a fundraiser in December, 2023 to help fund the construction of a smokeless wood kiln in Juany's Mayo community that fell short of their goal. The goal of this GoFundMe campaign is to raise the remaining funds to ensure that this kiln is built, or at the very least bring them closer to meeting that goal.
The school's Programa de Hornos de Leña para el Mejoramiento de la Cerámica Mexicana (Wood Kiln Program for the Improvement of Mexican Ceramics) helps Indigenous communities combine traditional pottery practices with modern technology to revive and improve local pottery production. Twenty-six smokeless wood kilns have been built in Indigenous communities throughout Mexico over the past seven years. The smokeless wood kilns were designed and developed by the late Japanese potter Masakazu Kusakabe, who helped communities build these kilns worldwide. In Mexico, the kilns have been built by Indigenous community members under the guidance of engineer Yusuke Suzuki, a student of Kusakabe's and an academic from the school.
Fellow potters, clay lovers, and generous donors, you can help raise funds to go towards completing this community kiln.
Compared to traditional firing methods, having access to a smokeless wood kiln offers numerous benefits to communities such as improved firing times, consumption of less wood, increased productivity and income for potters, and reduced safety hazards such as burns and the inhalation of harmful fumes.
Even a lot of small donations will go a long way towards improving the probability that the dream of establishing a thriving, productive community of professional potters and students in the Mayo community will come true.
All proceeds will go to La Escuela Nacional de Cerámica to construct the kiln.
To learn more about Juany and traditional Mayo pottery, read this article published in The Studio Potter:
To learn more about La Escuela Nacional de Cerámica, their initial fundraiser for Juany, and their Smokeless Wood Kiln Program in Mexico:
Thank you for your help!
Samirah Steinmeyer and Daniela Plascencia
Organizer
Samirah Steinmeyer
Organizer
Tucson, AZ