Guadalajara-D'Casa Stoneware

Chiripa partners are on a buying trip to Mexico. Here's the first communication we received:

8/14/200
Chiripa has landed in Mexico! We started this morning by visiting the ceramics workshop of our friend Enrique Castro Compos and his family (D’Casa Stoneware). We found the modest workshop tucked into a typical residential neighborhood in Guadalajara. Guadalajara is a city of 4 million souls but, like other Mexican cities, it feels smaller because everything is on a fairly human scale.

Enrique’s workshop has no signs or advertising to distinguish it from the surrounding residences. But when you knock on the door, Enrique invites you in to a small world of beautiful ceramics.



Enrique’s life is a compelling story. He lost is father at age 12, and his mother at age 16. He and his 4 brothers had no other family to support them -- no grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins. So the brothers had to support themselves. There was widespread poverty, and at times they had nothing to eat, But they stuck together and, somehow, made their way.

By constant hard work, Enrique made it to the University of Guadalajara, and eventually graduated with a degree in chemical engineering. He worked for 34 years, as a production supervisor for major ceramics companies, before starting his own business with his wife. He and his wife worked hard to build the small business, and to support their family of 5 children. The grown children have gone on to professional careers.


Enrique, shown here with his youngest son Carlos, is proud of his family ́s achievement. He has put his professional experience to work in producing a very high quality product, but he also credits his wife for developing the business. Son Carlos now plays an important role in keeping things running.

End of message from Mexico.
One of the fun and popular items that we carry on the Chiripa website is the 4-piece tequilla set. Tray/cup/salt shaker/plate for lime. At $17 it makes a great gift!


Every piece is carefully made by hand. The consistent shapes makes D'Casa stoneware a perfect choice for your dinnerware.


And the precise painting is equally consistent, yet maintains a definite hand-made feel.

We will continue to carry this line and will be adding more pieces to the website in the near future.

Oaxaca-Weavers, Bulmaro Perez Mendoza

Summer marches on. The Sidewalk Sale was a huge success. Some treasured items from our first buying trip found new homes. We are now preparing lists and making initial contacts for the next trip to Mexico scheduled for later this month.

But, I never finished the reports and photos from the last trip! I'll do a couple posts to introduce you to some of our favorite people and places in Oaxaca. We'll start with the village of Teotitlan del Valle, a short trip outside of Oaxaca City. It is the center for quality rug weaving. One of our first contacts there was Bulmaro Perez Mendoza. It was a Chiripa (happy accident) that we met him. We were walking from the main highway into the village when a car stopped to offer us a ride. Nelson (Bulmaro's brother) wouldn't take no for an answer and all four of us piled into his small car that also carried his wife and two children. It was a happy ride and he took us to the weaving workshop of his family: Father and Sons Rugs (Centenario #27). We learned of the rug-making process including the use of natural materials in the dyes. The following photo is Bulmaro giving a demonstration to visiting tourists and his mother carding wool in the background.


The color red comes from the cochinilla bug that grows on the cactus. You can see the white spots on the cactus in the next photo. Depending on what is mixed with the red powder from the dried bugs (an acid like lime or a base like alum), the weaver is able to achieve different shades of red (from purple to cardinal red).


We were fortunate on our last trip to arrive just after the family had spent two months dying the wool for this year's rugs. We were shown an upstairs room lined with beautiful shades of naturally dyed wool.


Bulmaro's wife told us that after the wool is dyed it retains the smell of the plant used to color the yarn. In this next photo she is smelling pecans!


A new house has been built closer to the main highway and Nelson has moved in there to work in his own space. He has learned well from his brother.


I photographed an older man weaving on the patio, but it wasn't until later that I learned that he is the father of "Father and Sons Rugs."


One of the prize rugs we brought back to the shop is this spectacular tapestry of birds on a red cochinilla background. The rug is signed by Bulmaro. It's not up on the website, yet. Stop in the shop to see it. It measures about 2.5 x 5 feet and is $550.


The rugs at Chiripa are some of our most treasured products. We hope they go to homes where people will enjoy them as much as we do!

Sidewalk Sale, July 19

If you are in the Madison area, please stop by the the first ever Chiripa Sidewalk Sale. We will be featuring inventory that arrived slightly damaged (our dings and dents) as well as overstock.

This is a Rain or Shine event. If we're not outside we'll be in the back patio and garage area. Find us from our website.  

See you there!

(The metal cow is from San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. We thought they'd be hot in Wisconsin. We have too many! It's your lucky day!)

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.

Milagros

Yes, still unpacking. . . I thought I'd share a fun batch that we got out on the floor today.


We've sold milagros (little miracles) since we opened and also a few wooden items adorned with milagros. We always sold out almost as fast as we could get them on the shelf. On this trip we brought home (actually, had sent to the shop) a larger quantity of items. You can find frames, crosses, hearts, and boxes, as well as individual milagros, tin milagro ornaments, and a small number of sterling milagros. I've even put one cross up on the website.

For those unfamiliar with milagros, they are small metal charms that depict something in a life: a hand, an arm, a cow, a house, a heart, a person praying. etc. A person gives this token to a saint and asks for intervention. I keep a car in my wallet as a good luck token when I drive. Others use the charms in craft projects. Some knit them into a scarf or a hat. And then others cover items with the charms just like in the items pictured.

We also carry a book about milagros. Stop in the shop to see our wide selection of milagro art from Michoacan, Mexico.