It is very common in the Chilean Village of Pomaire to make and sell the traditional ceramics. It has been since the middle of the 19^th century, that these villages have been producing distinctive earthware that is decorative yet also functional. This distinctive earthenware is made of clay that is dug out from a mountainside a small distance away from the town. The artisans have preserved the tradition of working with clay using the same techniques that have been handed down from generation to generation. Each piece is sun dried, then smoothed and burnished with an agate stone before being fired. Glaze or varnishes are not used. Time is definitely a factor in the process; it takes about five hours of slow feeding firewood into the bottom to get the oven hot enough to cure a few dozen plates. It also takes an additional seven more hours of red-hot heat to dry the clay into an iron-hard finish. In the majority of the places in Chile this Pomaire kitchenware is used throughout.