Black Pottery

We are often asked if we carry black pottery from Oaxaca. We had been reluctant to invest in it because of its fragile nature. How much of it would actually survive the truck ride? We decided to give it a try in February when we visited Dona Rosa Alfareria, San Bartolo Coyotepec in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.


Visit the Chiripa website to see a couple examples of the work or stop in the shop for a wide selection of styles.

For some background information I'll reprint from the business flyer:

"Dona Rosa Real de Nieto ( 1900-1980) stood out as a personality in Coyotepec for many years. Recognized with medals and diplomas, her works were appreciated by collectors and her fame surpassed the borders of Mexico. She gave black pottery a shine when she accidentally discovered that it can be polished. This is what today we call black pottery. In her last years she continued transforming clay into beautiful pieces with the strength and abilities of her best years. Her son and grandchildren now, with a master ability, continue the family tradition.

"The Potters of Coyotepec continue to use their traditional method of turning post without a wheel. This consits of two concave clay plates, one upside down supporting the other. This method is of prehispanic inheritance. The pieces are molded on this device. The process takes 20 to 30 days, and goes from molding to decoration, to slow drying in closed rooms, polishing with a quartz stone and finally to baking where the pieces acquire their black color depending on the baking time."

In addition to beautiful pottery, the village of San Bartolo Coyotepect hosts a very good museum that features many of the artisan crafts of Oaxaca. I also appreciated the detail of the pavement on the streets!


By the way, not one piece of pottery was broken in shipment. We attribute that to the fine job of packing done at Dona Rosa Alfareria.

On to Oaxaca

I will jump now to the Oaxaca part of the February 2008 trip. We are often asked where we stay on our buying trips. And although quite satisfied with our digs, they are never luxurious. Recommending them to people we don't know well can be a mistake. For example, our usual place to stay in Oaxaca is Las Golandrinas, but they don't accept credit cards and this can be a problem for travelers. On this trip they did not have a room to accommodate us, so we went across the street to Hotel Casa del Sotano.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a reasonably priced room available. I will share some of the features of this hotel because you might want to consider staying there when in Oaxaca. This is the entrance on the street: Tinoco y Palacios 414, Centro Historico


There are fountains and stone sculptures on the lower level. I love the lizard carved into (or part of) the corner stone.


Room numbers and names are painted on the wall.


Our room was spacious and it was graced in the morning with the traditional rolled towel swan. (We sometimes get them with flower petals strewn about them.)


There is a very intimate (small) outside dining area. It's a lovely spot for breakfast.


The complimentary continental breakfast includes a delicious plate with these fruits--cut up, of course. (Remember, it's February and Wisconsin is having record snowfall that will total more than 100 inches.)


The view is great. In the daytime you look over the tops of buildings and can see the distant mountains.


We also enjoyed sitting there at the end of the day to discuss our adventures and to plan the next day. The view of the Santo Domingo de Guzman cathedral might be the best in the city.


Visit Hotel del Sotano's website (Spanish only) for more information (and better pictures).

In the coming posts I will take you out to some of the villages where we buy rugs and alebrijes (carved and painted animals) and black pottery. I will also work to get more of it up on the website. For now, if you go to the shopping section and type OAXACA in the search field you will see a selection of products from that area.

Pineapples

All of the new inventory is unpacked and a representative sample is on the shelves in the shop. So, we can go back to the trip in February.

After our visit in Ocumicho (see the April 22nd post), we made an unplanned stop at the workshop of Pedro Hernandez in Tangancicuaro, Michocan, Mexico. Pedro is part of the Barro Sin Plomo (Clay Without Lead) group and is one of the maestros of the ceramic pineapples so popular in Mexico. Pedro is on the right on this photo.


Being a Midwesterner, I've never had a particular affinity for pineapples, but this stop has changed that. We watched as Pedro rolled strings of clay, broke off tiny bits, and placed each with precision on the larger clay piece.


Our demonstration was interrupted by a meal being served to the family. I often decline home cooked food and almost always beverages as a guard against food my digestive system cannot handle. I was tired, hungry, and thirsty. I accepted the freshly made tortillas, the meat and broth filling, and the fruit punch. It was one of the best meals I've had in Mexico. And I must be getting Mexican food tough, for there were no ill effects. Street food next???


We bought a conservative amount of the beautiful pineapples created in Pedro's workshop to test the market in Madison and on the web. Below is a photo of our display at the shop.

I've put a couple pineapple samples on the website as well.

A long drive back to Patzcuaro gave us time to reflect on all the places and people we had visited that day. We continue to be amazed at the artistry and resourcefulness of these hard working and generous people.