Hand-crafted Ethiopian Guinea Fowl

Hand-crafted Ethiopian Guinea Fowl

Description & Product Details

This one-of-a-kind guinea fowl is made of red clay from a riverbed in Ethiopia. Talented craftswomen shape each hen by hand before they dip it in sesame oil and bury it in the oven with eucalyptus leaves to obtain its black patina. Each white spot is manually painted with a thin wood stick as a paintbrush. A pottery workshop in Addis Abeba is preserving this millennial old craft by training women in making decorative pottery and by paying them substantially higher wages. Potters are amongst the most denigrated of Ethiopia's traditional artisans while their numbers are extensive throughout the country. The workshop’s socially responsible business model has earned it the distinction of being the first Ethiopian company to obtain highly coveted International Fair Trade Association membership.

Composition & Colour

Made from Ethiopian red clay

Size

Available in 5 sizes: 7cm, 12cm, 16cm, 18cm, 30cm

Ideas for Use

It might be worth a try to convince them to make your Sunday breakfast egg.

How it is made

Preparing clay from a riverbed

Traditional Ethiopian pottery is made from three types of clay collected by hand from the riverbed. Once it is dried, it is pulverized with a big wooden pestle and then mixed with water to create a flexible paste that can be kneaded.
Shaping the clay

In Ethiopia, most potters do not use a potter's wheel but rather a flat, round wooden plate, which serves as the bottom support for working the clay. The technique of building up the pot is by spiral coiling. The craftswoman rolls a thick sausage of prepared paste in her palms, and presses it in place, and then adds another, working her way up.
Smoothing the Surface

When the wet body is finished, the craftswoman smoothes the surface with a small wet corncob, leather rag, or sherd of clay.
Drying & Burnishing

Once the basic shape is created and dried in the sun for several hours, each piece is burnished. For this time consuming practice, the craftswomen rub the pottery with a smooth river stone to give it a smooth and shiny surface texture, making it more waterproof.
Firing the clay

Right before firing, the craftswomen coat each piece in sesame oil and, once fired, cover them with dried eucalyptus leaves. This process gives the pottery its exceptional shiny black patina.
Painting the pottery

As a final step, the craftswomen will paint the guinea fowl. Each white spot is placed manually with a thin wood stick as a paintbrush.