In the Chilean village of Pomaire, almost everyone makes or sells traditional ceramics. This distinct earthenware is made of clay dug from amountainside about 40 Km from town.

Each piece they create is sun dried, then smoothed and burnished with an agate stone before being fired. No glaze or varnish is used.

Ovens work around the clock, packed full with clay plates and bowls. It takes about five hours of slowly feeding firewood into the botton to get the oven hot enough to cure a few dozen dinner plates. Then it takes seven more hours of red-hot heat to dry the clay into an iron-hard finish.

It´s hard to sit down to a meal anywhere in Chile without being served something in a Pomaire pot. They´re tough as nails, distribute heat wonderfully and clean up more easyly than glass.