The tableware of Cerámicas El Dorado, a project started by Don Pedro Bello in 1966 and still thriving today under the care of his daughters Gladis and Fanny, and his son Óscar, preserves the century-old history of a pottery town, its ups and downs, and its resilience. It all dates back to the late 1800s when a man from Caldas saw the potential of the soils in Carmen de Viboral. He noticed the white clays, and the surrounding quartz and feldspar. He began to set up a business, followed by other families. By the first half of the 1900s, there were already 24 ceramic factories in the municipality. Everyone’s work became centered around this craft. The largest was Continental, the factory everyone remembers for leading exports and improving ceramic quality. Today, only the land where it stood remains.

It was during this golden era that a young Pedro Bello arrived in Carmen from Chiquinquirá. He had earned a scholarship to learn the trade at the boarding Industrial School. He studied, and once he graduated, he became a teacher at the same school while gradually setting up his own workshop and starting his family with Fabiola Rendón, a local woman he met at the town notary. He began by making the porcelain balls used for grinding minerals in ball mills, for which he also made the linings. Later, he made flowerpots, firing them in those old massive coal kilns where everything was measured by eye, long before Continental modernized the firing process. Pedro Bello also became known for his sturdy beer mugs, coated with single-firing glazes that wouldn’t break, and he was one of the first ones to sell his products in fairs.

Then the crisis hit. The same violence that affected many in the country between the seventies and nineties left the ceramists of Carmen without customers and unable to sell their products. Even Continental went bankrupt, and nearly all workshops had to close, except two. One of them was El Dorado, owned by Don Pedro Bello, who continued making flowerpots and later, with the help of his daughter Gladis, started to associate and produce the tableware they are known for today, as part of their recovery process.

They succeeded. They added new items to their catalog, including the beautiful floral decorations known as “pintas,” made with mineral pigments and water on the tableware. Fortunately, not only did they recover, but others also began reopening their workshops, reviving the tradition that made the municipality famous. Although Cerámicas El Dorado is not the largest workshop, it is the oldest. They preserve the town’s ceramic history by maintaining the coal kiln, the mechanical wheel, the frit maker, and the tools used over a hundred years ago. The legacy has been upheld by Fabiola Rendón and Pedro Bello’s children: Óscar in production, Gladis in commercial affairs, and Fanny, who joined the team after retiring to support the tourism aspect of the family business. Eager to welcome visitors and share their story, they will show you how they create the “pinta” that their father invented and that continues to represent them so well, the traditional Blue, and the new designs added to their catalog thanks to the contributions of skilled local painters, named after them: Esperanza, Carmelita, Gloria, Teresita, and Floralba.