If there is an area along the Jequitinhonha that is famous for its ceramics, it’s Campo Alegre. The pieces made by the local women fill the shelves of the local Craft Art Association. The men help by sourcing and preparing the clay, some even risk putting the finishing touches, but none model it. “Before we had a lot of orders, a lot of demand. Now there is very little. We have a big warehouse, but we depend on orders. It’s hard to get to these parts,” explains Ana Gomes do Santos, one of the oldest artists in Campo Alegre. “I was born here in 1930, and have never left. I remember how my stepmother used to make clay pots. One day she went away, to visit her family. My sister and I got some of her clay and made water bottles. That’s how we started, and we have never stopped since. When people heard we were firing pieces they’d come round to buy whatever they needed. They bought it to use, not to take away.”
Maria da Conceição Gomes Francisco was also born in Campo Alegre, in 1967. “My mother and my grandmother have always made pots and bottles in the shape of women, to carry water. We learned, and in time we invented other things. I like the circle of women which I make just for decoration. To this day, we sell pots and dishes at the fairs. Everything is used, they are not for decoration.”
Durvalina Gomes Francisco also remembers the regional fairs of Capelinha and Turmalina, where she used to take the pieces made by her grandmother and mother. “There have always been dolls, but with more people making them, new kinds started to appear. We were five sisters working together with our mother. We started making the twin dolls, and at home all our pots were made of clay. That’s the way things are in Campo Alegre. We live off the land and off clay. When there’s too much work on the land I help my husband, and when I have too much work with the clay, he helps me. It’s a tough life. Our smallholding produces enough to eat, and the clay pays for the extras.” |
