The ceramic traditions of the Caribbean islands are mixed. The indigenous Native American traditions were largely wiped out with colonial settlement. The Europeans set up pottery workshops equipped with wheels and kilns according to the conventional male model. Some remnants of African ceramic practices were transplanted to the Caribbean through slave communities.

In St. Lucia, one of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, the women’s pottery tradition retains memories of West African methods and forms. Irena Alphonse, who was trained by her mother in traditional forming and firing methods, also works more sculpturally. Her platters make self-conscious reference to earlier peoples of the Caribbean and South America.