SORSOGON CITY, Sorsogon (PIA) – Paradijon pottery in Gubat, Sorsogon plays a vital role in preserving and promoting the local community's traditional pottery-making techniques and artistry. By continuing to create pottery using traditional methods, the artisans keep their cultural heritage alive and pass down their knowledge to future generations. 

The Paradijon clay craft can be traced back to pre-colonial times when generations of families practiced the clay craft and achieved mastery of producing and shaping clays in various forms of functional art. 

Paradijon is a local term for coron (pot) makers and is where Barangay Paradijon in Gubat town was derived.

Shirley Del Rosario is a store salesperson at Paradijon Pottery Center. During her testimony, she spoke about the high demand for their pottery products. She noted that they have buyers coming in every day who appreciate the quality of their products. She attributes this to the manual process of production that is carefully crafted by master potters, ensuring that each piece is designed and durable. 

Their best-selling products during the pandemic have been pots (masetera) used for plants and cooking pots (palayok). Jars are also popular, but require more time to produce, so they are pre-ordered. 

Pottery making, the Paradijon way 

The traditional process of making Paradijon pottery involves a community of individuals and artisans who band together to produce earthenware which takes about two to three weeks or even a month depending on weather conditions. 

Victoria Estolas, a member of the PPWA and a master potter by experience, explained and demonstrated manual pottery making, the Paradijon way. 

In her sharing, clay gatherers (parakal-ot) go out to secure the needed raw materials. Clay comes in different types such as himulot na baga (red), himulot na itom (black), baras and porog. After transporting it back to the community from the mountain several kilometers away, the clay is subjected to manual pounding with a wooden pestle by clay refiners or clay purers to break down the material. 

Clay refiners are experts in mixing stones, sand, clay, and water to produce different types of potting materials to be used in making plant pots (masitera), jars (dulay/tapayan/banga), cooking pots, and clay toys. The pounding process called pag-lubok or pag-dusang, could take about a minimum of two to three hours to refine the clay with enough elasticity and viscosity. 

After pounding, it is shaped into a ball and covered with plastic for some curing and to let it release air bubbles. After two to three days, the clay becomes more compact but still retains its elasticity. The next step is to mold it into clay products depending on what type of refined clay to produce. 

Then it is left to dry for about two to three weeks, depending on the weather. Before it goes into the fire, the polishers put red clay (purog) to cover up the dullness and obtain that red color. Then it goes for firing up in the makeshift, open-air kiln with rice straw or dried grasses, or pili shells used as fuel.  Firing up the clay products can take about seven hours in a single round. 

Master potters utilize two artisanal techniques for molding clay. For cooking pots, water storage jars, and plant pots, they use the wooden paddle and anvil (pikpik at bato) method. To create the clay stove and layer (sampau), they used the manual potter’s wheel (bayangan) and a piece of cloth to polish the clay (babyang). They are free to use both methods as needed. 

Challenges faced by the artisans

The traditional Paradijon clay craft, handed down through personal coaching, observation, and repeated exposure by master potters, has been affected by several challenges over the past few decades. Immediate intervention, either from government or non-government entities, is needed to ensure that this cultural and economic legacy is not threatened and wiped out.

Master potters require a production area that is far from residential homes, so as not to disturb residents with the smoky kiln. They also need a covered drying area and storage facility to produce clay products at a shorter time.

The craft also faces the challenges of the times in terms of benchmarking, upgrades in skills and design, as well as the introduction of modern technology to step up production that could meet the market’s demand.

The artisans, instead of earning a bigger profit, get meager income since they have to pay the clay gatherer, transportation fees, and manual labor.

Furthermore, with stiff competition now, artisans become more vulnerable to economic hardships. Eventually, some potters refrained from producing clay pots and sought other means to survive, and worst, they discouraged their children from pursuing pottery making. The master potters, too, are aging and without the youth practicing the craft, the industry will soon perish.

Pottery holds a special place in the lives, history, and culture of PPWA. By revitalizing this art, they hope to revive the industry. (PIA 5/Sorsogon)