Chulucanas Pottery

Chulucanas ceramic is made in the town and especially in the nearby village of La Encantada, and the technique is what defines it: pieces are hand-built and paddled, burnished with a stone to a hard shine, then areas are masked with clay slip before the pot is smoked in a closed firing with mango leaves, so the exposed surfaces blacken and the masked ones stay cream. Peeling off the mask reveals the pattern. The forms are typically rounded vessels and figures - the well-known chola, a standing woman, and the tunante dancer among them - and the tradition draws on Vicús and Tallán ceramics from the same region. It received Peru's denomination of origin protection in 2006, the first ceramic to do so. Workshops in La Encantada work openly and sell directly, and the difference between a serious piece and a tourist one is visible in the burnish.

What you actually see

• The smoking - closed firing with mango leaves blackening the exposed surface.
• The masking - clay slip protecting areas that stay cream when the smoke does its work.
• The burnish - stone-polished surfaces giving the hard characteristic shine.
• The forms - rounded vessels and figures including the chola and the tunante.

When to go

Year-round; extremely hot from December to April. Two to three hours in La Encantada and Chulucanas. Weekdays for finding workshops working.

Honest expectations

Workshops are homes with irregular hours. Mass-produced imitations are sold widely - look for the denomination mark and the quality of the burnish. Hot and dusty. Little English is spoken.

Nearby

Piura is west; Catacaos and its craft market are on the way.