About four hours south and west of El Paso, Texas sits the town of Mata Ortiz in northern Chihuahua, Mexico. Approximately 27 years ago, one of Mata Ortiz’s residents, Juan Quezada, began making and painting pottery inspired by the shapes and designs of the prehistoric Indians from nearby ruins of Paquimé in Casas Grandes. In 1976, he began selling the decorative earthenware to traders from El Paso; however, it wasn’t until a businessman and amateur anthropologist by the name of Spencer MacCallum discovered Quezada’s work that he began to improve his quality of work and his popularity grew in the United States. By the end of the 1970’s, Quezada’s work was featured in several museum exhibitions, including one at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona and the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, California.
Currently, there are over 400 potters, including men, women, and adolescents, working in the village. Many of them turn out unique bowls, pots, ollas, wedding vases, effigies, and plates, which many collectors believe surpass or rival the more famous Pueblo pottery of the Southwest. Some of these beautiful pieces are Polychrome Pottery. “Polychrome” is a term used to describe the use of multiple colors for one object or entity. Most often, the term is used in conjunction with certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. The word is derived from the Greek πολύχρωμος (polychromos), which means "colorful".
Polychrome Pottery pieces were the first type of pots created by Juan Quezada. Mata Ortiz Pottery, which includes Polychrome Pottery, is thin-walled, measures 2 to 3 mm in thickness, and is created from natural materials. Many different colored clays are excavated from the nearby mountains, and red and black pigments are produced from iron and manganese oxides. The designs are applied with brushes that consist of a single human hair glued to the end of the stick, and the pots are shaped by hand without benefit of a potter's wheel. The pottery is fired outdoors, usually one pot at a time, using either dried cow chips or cottonwood when cow dung is scarce. The firing times vary from 20 to 45 minutes and temperatures may reach 1200 to 1400 degrees Fahrenheit.
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