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Agapito, Alejandrina and Family

"My name is Agapito and my wife is Alejandrina. We have three children - two daughters and one son. The eldest is studying at a computer science institute, and the younger two are still in grade school.

"Alejandrina and I began making pots, which is a skill passed down from my grandparents, in the early 1980s. We rented a small workshop to make our pots and little by little our orders began to pick up. We started with only a tiny oven and now we have three large kilns - one gas and two electric. Currently there are now six assistants working with us. There are many talented people around here that need work, though. We would hire twenty more people to work with us if we could. Every once in a while we work with a group of people from the Shipibo tribe who come here from the Amazon jungle, near the river city of Pucallpa. We make the jugs and the pots and they paint them. They usually stay for a month and then go home. They're a great group to work with.

"Our process of working with clay is very special. First, we take the raw clay and we put it through water and filter it to make it really fine. Then, we spin it on foot-pedaled potter's wheels to give it form. Next, we dry it in the heat of the sun. The amount of time it takes to fully dry the clay really depends on the season and if there is sun. It can be as fast as three days or take as long as one week. Then, after it's dry, it's off to the oven! Fifty plates can fit in the kiln. We fire at low temperatures for about eight hours. From the kiln, we polish and sand it down then take it inside for the final and very important step: the paint and design."