Glass in Tlaquepaque

Musings from the Feb 2011 Chiripa buying trip to Mexico.

In Tlaquepaque, a suburb of Guadalajara that is famous for its artisan crafts, we also stop to visit our friend Tina Ruiz. Tina’s husband of many years died last year (see this post), leaving her to run the family’s hand-blown glass business. It has been a hard year, and Tina has had to contract for production help. But she still sells hand-blown glass produced according to her family designs. She continues to nurture the avocado trees that she and her husband planted just before he died, and hopes to sell avocados in a couple of years. She was delighted to receive a Chiripa cap to protect her from the sun! 

Chiripa carries a fine selection of beautiful hand-blown glassware, selected from Tina’s shop. Chiripa currently has several color options for the glass mask luminaries behind Tina in this photo. You can also find select pieces on the Chiripa website.

Farewell to a Friend

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

"I am so glad to see you, but I have some very bad news." We held our breath, waiting for what Tina would tell us: "My husband Carlos has died."

 Carlos and Tina in February, 2010.

It was just this past February when Carlos had drawn us a big glass of tequila from the barrel in the back room. (Carlos had received the barrel in payment from a small tequila maker who could not afford to pay cash for the special hand-blown glass bottles that Carlos had made for him.) When we protested that the glass was too big, Carlos just smiled and said "the tap closes slowly . . ."  We laughed, and he told us about the avocado trees that he was planting on their little farm. He hoped to sell the avocados to provide retirement income.

On a hot afternoon just one month later, Carlos was watering the young avocado trees when he suffered a stroke. He wanted to clean up before going to the hospital, but he naver made it. Carlos was gone, and Tina is left to tend the trees herself.

Tina and Carlos were maried for 43 years. As newlyweds they moved to Tlaquepaque to live in his mother's house, just across the street from the old Rufugio monastery. For many years, the house served as glass-blowing workshop, retail store and residence. 

Tina misses Carlos "more each day." But at least for now, she bravely carries on the family glassware business. Chiripa is proud to be one of her loyal customers.

Farewell, Carlos.

Tlaquepaque

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

We visited Tina’s shop in Tlaquepaque, a suburb of Guadalajara, where you can find many crafts for sale. Tina and her husband operate a small workshop that produces wonderful hand-blown glassware. But Tina laments that business is slow – so slow that they had to close down the workshop and lay off workers (at least until Chiripa showed up!). It was a familiar story among the artisans that we visited.


We ordered a nice selection of glass items that will get the workshop going again, at least for a little while. The glass creations are all made from recycled glass, and they are all lead-free. They have that special hand-blown shape and feel that will add an artisan touch to your home and table.

Some of the sizes available at Chiripa. Other colors: cobalt blue, aqua, red.

We also checked in on our good friends at D’Casa Ceramics, near Tlaquepaque. This family business operates in a little workshop on a residential street, but produces beautiful, high-temperature, Talavera ceramic ware that is durable and lead-free.


The proprietor, Enrique Castro, had many years of experience as a supervising engineer with large ceramics firms before starting his own business with his wife Gloria Saucedo. He takes a lot of pride in his work, and you can trust him to provide the very highest quality product. --JM, August 17, 2009

"Rosy" is the name of this pattern. It's one of Chiripa's "Best Sellers."