The Shipibo-Konibo people are recognized for their artistic manifestations, among them the pottery or ceramics, with kené designs, especially made by the women. The Shipibo-Konibo pottery bears great similarity to the Cumanya style, which, as demonstrated by some archaeological studies, was developed more than a thousand years ago in the upper Ucayali. (Mincul, 2019).
In the past, ceramics had a great value for commercial exchange - fluvial, not monetary. In addition, the pottery was used in the great festivities where the whole community conglomerated and shared the drink of masato in pots with dazzling designs, it was also a space where women showed off their skills as potters.
A woman ceramist formerly chose one of her granddaughters as an apprentice. The granddaughter of 4 or 5 years, went to live with her grandmother to learn the art of pottery and be cured to pass on this knowledge, for them to then have their own thoughts, or designs.
Today the Shipibo-Konibo women continue the legacy and tradition of polychrome ceramics, developed between 800 and 1600 AD, this shows that the women of today are the heirs of an Amazonian artistic tradition of more than 1200 years.
The Shipibo-Konibo ceramic process includes two main categories: the piece intended to be placed over the fire for cooking and the pieces that do not come into contact with the fire, but are used to store, ferment and serve drinks and meals (Mincul 2019, Deboer and Latharp, 1979).
These two kinds of pieces are made with different clays, and have different finishes and processes, for example, fire pieces, such as cooking pots, are decorated with finger incisions and punctures on the walls, but are not engobed or painted with kene designs. On the other hand, the pieces that do not go over the fire, such as serving vessels and jars for storing and fermenting beverages, are engobed with complex compositions of Kene design. In addition, they are varnished on the outside and lacquered on the inside to make them waterproof and thus keep the beverages fresh. The pieces are represented with images of jaguars, monkeys, turtles and armadillos, and belong to the class of ceramics that are not exposed to fire, bearing engobe, paint with kene designs and varnish.
The elaboration of ceramics goes through meticulous processes to reach its final creation. In principle, materials extracted from the forest are collected, such as clays or mapo, and there are two varieties: Kenti ati mapo, a gray clay used in the manufacture of pieces that are sealed or cured in the fire, such as cooking pots. The kencha ati mapo is a thick, light brown clay and is used to make pieces such as jars for storing drinks or decorative pieces, and these are not sealed over the fire. In addition, in the process of making pottery, water is used at various times, to soak the clay and remove impurities that could damage the mass (Mincul, 2019). Another input used is apacharama ash and is extracted from the bark of a tree called moai in Shipibo-Konibo.
It is used as a degreaser and is mixed with the clean clay to prepare the dough, also kenkex is a recycled material (they are broken pots, ground and sieved) and is used in the mixture with the apacharama. The kenkex increases the adherence of the prepared mass, it is considered that the recycled piece in the elaboration of the ceramic makes it more resistant and breaks less easily.
To finalize the ceramic manufacturing process, natural dyes are used for the design, which are coloured earths, among them is maox, a bright white, cream and or earth, in addition there is itawana, a dark earth stone that dissolves in water when it is rubbed and it’s color varies between black and brown. The yopiri or itanwana is a dark red earth that abounds on the banks of the rivers in times of droughts or emptying, its dye is used in ceramics to store water.
Other materials used to make ceramics is huingo, used to make a spatula of different sizes to mold the pieces, as well as baby hair to make brushes and achieve fine strokes. Currently the sale of black and red clay has been commercialised since the demand for ceramics has increased due to the tourist market.
Talking with Leidy Panduro, who comes from a traditional family of ceramists, she tells us about her beginnings:
"I come from a ceramic family, my grandmother on my father's side, on my mother's side they also made ceramics for their own use, but not for sale, because in the past they were used in their kitchens. I grew up with that vision, I saw that my grandparents would make ceramics, my mother also makes ceramics. I helped to make the thin lines, because I still did not know how to get the designs out of my mind, because we get the designs of each piece from our mind and it is captured in each piece (...), when I was 25 years old I was already making ceramics by myself, I had my own thoughts. We capture the experience of the jungle, of the rivers, of what we dream too, that's why in each piece the designs are different (...) Ceramics is like you are with your family. We make from clay, from plants and tree shells, from these same materials the owners make you dream, then it makes you see your future, what you are going to do later on, what has to be. I asked him to give me wisdom, I want to learn ceramics, and one day he showed me many models, many designs and I remembered those pieces very well, so I said I'm going to try, so I started to be a ceramist artist". Leidy Panduro, 2023.
