Around Lake Patzcuaro-Manuel Morales

Thoughts and photos from the February 2012 Chiripa buying trip to Mexico.

Some of our most amazing and memorable experiences traveling in Mexico come from visiting workshops in small villages. The artists are in their natural element.

Master potter Manuel Morales lives and works in Tzintzuntzan, Michoacan, Mexico. Using pre-columbian themes and geometrical designs, he has managed to combine images from his indigenous Purepecha heritage and influences from the greater world of art history. His workshop is the building that was the first hospital in that area. Manuel's work has won numerous national prizes and is coveted in the U.S. and Europe. Chiripa feels fortunate to have several new pieces on the way.

Our current (4/12) remaining piece can be found on the Chiripa website.

We first met Manuel when visiting his mother, also a potter. Ofelia Gamez died about a year ago; a great loss to the community and Chiripa.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new shipment from Mexico. Sign up for the Chiripa mailing list (lower right corner of homepage) if you would like email notifications. -kl

Peeking into Tzintzuntzan

From the log kept by JM on the August 2010 Chiripa buying trip to Mexico.

August 24, 2010. In Tzintzuntzan (Michoacan, Mexico) there is a handcraft market that offers a mountain of goods, including ceramics, straw baskets, cornhusk flowers, wood carvings and much more. You can see local people binging their wares for sale. 

Patient sellers often pass hours or days between sales, so Chiripa is glad to bring them needed business. The recent wet weather, with its occasional heavy deluges, has made life even ore difficult for open-air market vendors.

Behind the market is a centuries-old church and an old walled park with ancient olive trees. We cross the park, and pass through a doorway in the far wall near the church. Just down the street, and around the corner, we knock on the door of Ofelia Gamez, who is well known for the hand-painted lead-free ceramics she makes in her home. 

We interrupt Ofelia's work long enough to pick out some nice pieces for Chiripa. Ofelia's son, Manuel Morales, who also has a workshop in Tzintzuntzan, has gained an international reputation for his elegant ceramics. This sample is currently at Chiripa.

Tzintzuntzan and Back

Text from JM's log on the Feb/March 2010 Chiripa buying trip to Mexico. Photo captions by Kathryn.

February 22, 2010

We traveled to the lakeside village of Tzintzuntzan, which in past centuries was the capital of the powerful Tarascan empire. There we shopped for cantera stone carving.

An array of carved volcanic rock.

Carver Diego Lopez Zaldivar with his family

A veiw of the ancient ruins from Diego's window.

And we visited the overflowing artisan market. We bought armloads of things, including dozens of tall cornhusk gladiolas on bamboo sticks.

We stuffed everything into a small taxi, and then tried to stuff ourselves into the same tiny space. It was a struggle, but nothing like that which ensued when we tried to get out again at our destination. The taxi driver smiled in amusement as we thrashed around in a hopeless tangle of seat belts, bags, flowers and sticks. He kept his good humor, even when a rogue stick nearly cost him an eye. But at last we broke free, and no one was hurt. All part of the Chiripa business model!

A staple at Chiripa is the cornhusk flowers that we can only find in the Tzintzuntzan market.

These colorful additions to our shop inspire people to say: "Chiripa makes me happy!"

This photo is the family who's stall at the market sells the many flowers we purchase

(daisies, callas, tulips, and the gladiolas mentioned in the copy above).

Left to right: Angelica Morales, her husband Juan Alberto Aparicio, and their daughter Jessica Morales.

We were happy to find all of them at the shop on this trip.

Paula Guzman Perez makes these delightful skeletons.

Her display was set up outside the local cemetery that is famous for it's Day of the Dead observance.

It was just a Chiripa that she was on the path that I walked on my way to buy stone carvings.

Barro Sin Plomo and Tzintzuntzan, Michoacan, Mx

A post from the log that JM kept on the August 09 buying trip to Mexico for Chiripa. -kl

We knocked on the wooden door, not far from the center of Patzcuaro. After a pause, the door opened and we were warmly welcomed by our friends at Echery Pottery. Echery works with Barro Sin Plomo (“Clay Without Lead”), a non-profit charity that promotes lead-free pottery methods in rural communities. The effort is important for the health of artisans and their families – especially children – as well as for consumers.


Chiripa was an early supporter of this lead-free effort. But lead-free producers face competitive challenges, especially because cheaper lead-containing ceramics are still finding their way across the border for food use (often by immigrant populations) in the United States.

Our friends took us to several villages, and down dirt lanes, to the homes of participating lead-free producers. You would be amazed at the beauty that skilled artisans create in these humble and unexpected places (you can glimpse some of their work at Chiripa).


Later, we stopped at the town of Tzintzuntzan, capital of the pre-Columbian Tarascan Empire. The ancient ruins above the town command a beautiful view of the lake and surrounding mountains.


The stone ramparts were built with carefully fitted stones, without mortar. On the road below the ruins, there are workshops that carry on the stonework tradition – producing “cantera” stone carvings (garden ornaments and other statuary).


If you can’t get to Tzintzuntzan yourself, you can see some fine examples at Chiripa. --JM August 14, 2009