"Marta painted a bowl she had already made. For a brush she used a twig with strands of her own hair tied to the end of it. This made a brush that could make very fine lines. She used yellow clay as a base and added water to the red and the white clay to produce a slip for the paint. Marta covered the bowl entirely with red. She used white and black to make angular designs. Young Jaqui showed me how to make the black color. She chewed a leaf from the Suwa tree to produce a black liquid."

"Feet bare, but with steps easy and sure, Ligia walked along the stream banking to show us where she got the clay for the pottery the women made. She used a shawl to strap her youngest child to her back. Dodging bushes and stooping under low branches, she came to the place where white clay lay in the stream bed. Standing in water above her ankles, she bent down and scooped up a huge ball of clay. After she let the water drip off, she placed it in a basket. Then she walked farther along the stream to a bank where she found yellow clay. Adding that to her basket, she straightened and made her way back downstream to the community. Red clay, she said, was found on the other side of the Pastaza River."

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