This is the story of how an American designer and a Peruvian artisan used an ancient smoking technique to blacken Chinese imports as a small act of cultural defiance.

Peruvians have an ancient tradition in ceramics, but it is simply cheaper to use imported Chinese porcelain. Even ceramic artisans in Lima surround themselves with the wares of their greatest competitor. 

Ernesto Valladeres practices the prehistoric Chulucan technique of blackening ceramics with the resin from smoked mango leaves. These leaves are unique to the region and illegal to export, making Peru the only country capable of producing Chulucan ceramics.

WE bought cheap Chinese porcelain FROM THE CENTRAL MARKET IN LIMA...

...and SMOKED it IN BARRELS UNTIL it was completely BLACK...

...To create a hybrid, a made-in-China silhouette blackened into a Peruvian product.