Baca, Salvador and Virginia
Salvador and Virginia Baca produce exceptionally thin-walled, finely decorated black ceramics in the village of Mata Ortiz in northern Mexico. Virginia learned the basics of pottery making from her sister, Gloria Lozoya de Veloz.
In those days Salvador was working as a corporate accountant. It wasn’t long before he realized he preferred making pottery with his wife to counting beans for a faceless corporate entity. Salvador also learned the basics from Virginia’s sister, then they moved to Nuevo Casas Grandes to enroll their children in one of the better Mormon schools. That move also allowed both of them to study with Jorge Quintana.
Since 1995, they have worked as a team, each focused on their strengths and pushing themselves forward to the next level of creativity.
Virginia usually forms the very thin wall pieces and sets them aside to dry for several days. Then Salvador takes them one at a time and sands the surfaces. Then he incises design shapes into the surfaces. When done, he then burnishes the surfaces to get a polished and shiny finish. Then, following his incisions, he paints Paquimé designs over much of the surface of each pot.
When Salvador and Virginia go to fire their pots, they begin by placing pieces on the ground and covering them with a metal bucket. Then they build a stack of wood around the bucket and light the wood on fire. At a certain point they smother the fire with cow manure and the oxygen-reduction process created by that turns any exposed clay black.
Their design elements have included polychromes and tan clays in the past but these days, they tend to prefer producing matte black patterns painted on highly polished clay surfaces. Sometimes they add cutouts in the vessel walls. Sometimes they carve stepped surfaces into the sides of a pot.
Some of their pots are tall with flared rims and almost pointed bases. Other of their shapes vary from seed pots with animal-shaped mouths to miniatures that are similar in form to their tall vessels. They also often produce a very popular black-on-black wedding vase, highly polished with high handles and exquisite matte black designs.
The miniatures the Bacas create are well known in the pottery world as they have earned First Place ribbons in the Miniature Division at the Premio Nacional de la Cerámica (National Ceramics Competition) in Tlaquepaque, Mexico several times.
In 2018 Salvador earned a First Place prize for a traditional color pot, with or without design, at the annual Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz.
Among Salvador’s cousins are Taurina Baca and Luz Elva Ramirez.