Rosa and Miguel grew up among clay, and clay joined them together. Their families were craftspeople, and they earned their living selling the wares they made. In fact, Rosa’s mother, Doña Ninfa Salazar, is one of La Chamba’s best shiners. That means that she skillfully and patiently rubs the black pots that are characteristic of this town from Tolima to give them the finishes that have made them famous. Everybody in town worked at home since they were children, even our protagonists. It was what needed to be done to get out of poverty.

Until it was time to get married. And so, Miguel and Rosa started their life together. It was not easy to start a family working for others, which was what everybody did. Nonetheless, Rosa, tired of working so much and getting so little in return, one day told her husband they had to become independent. She announced that they were going to change somewhat their lifestyle with the resolve that so many women have in their houses in Colombia “because we have been doing the same, working and working, and we don’t see anything… we didn’t see any results and with the children —I have 5 children and, well, you can guess— it was a little bit difficult.”

She acknowledges that it was hard at the beginning. Working on your own is never easy. Nonetheless, the quality with which they made their clay wares was so good that word of mouth spread, people started working for them, and they started getting bought from directly. Those were good years, although it was difficult to compete among so many artisans who were also improving their processes. She started to feel stuck. Until 2016 arrived and Artesanías de Colombia, seeing this exact phenomenon, sent a team of designers to see how La Chamba’s pottery could be somewhat improved to open markets.

It was there where Rosa and Miguel learned about pointillism. Working together, potters and designers thought of a way in which to introduce aesthetic elements to the traditional clay pots. It was not an easy task because, since these pieces were kitchenware, the design had to contemplate scenarios to make it so the engravings would not affect their sanitary aspects. Moreover, they had to make sure that, while doing pointillism, their perforations did not make the insides of the pot spill out. These problems sound easy to solve, but they were a big wager considering that these artisans were messing with a craft that had never been modified. And it worked to the point that, nowadays, the differential aspect of their products has made them much more valuable.

Rosa celebrates the fact that she has been able to do this. She loves what they do, and both she and her husband enjoy innovating their designs for each new fair. This has led them to continue trying out other techniques, like washing and combing, proofs of their resourcefulness and ingenuity. They wash the ceramics with foam or comb them with large combs of metal bristles to obtain new textures that invite people to keep collecting pieces from La Chamba. She will continue to explore because she does not get tired of exploring the thousands of possibilities that her clay offers.