Artists in the Mercado

Photos and thoughts from the February 2012 Chiripa buying trip to Mexico.

We never miss tromping through the Artisan Market in San Miguel de Allende. We have vendors there who we've worked with for years and we discover new ones every year. What I realized this year was that many are women. The shops open in the late morning and close around 5. Often children play while their parent(s) works. Sometimes young people practice their English on the tourists. Often the shop keeper is also the artist. Other times the workshop is off-site and the market booth is the retail outlet.

These four women were part of the Mercado experience on this trip.

We met Adela Flores on our very first buying trip to San Miguel de Allende six years ago. Her family makes the colorful painted blue clay figures, frames and boxes that brighten our walls. They also sell other items from their home state of Guerrero like coconut masks and silver jewelry. This year Adela greeted us again. We learned that she now has 3 children! "That's enough!" she volunteered.

We found Julieta Perez hammering milagros onto wooden hearts and crosses. Her work was very finely detailed and she greeted us warmly. I put together an order sitting on the tiny stool she uses as her workshop. Her fingers are stained from the finish on the wood. I marveled at the crude workspace virtually in a tunnel. No wonder the merchants are reluctant to arrive before noon.

Leonor is my new source for plain tin nichos; those tin boxes with glass doors that you can decorate with your own pictures, beads, and trinkets. Her shop has lots of tin things. I was admiring the variety and inquiring about quantities when she told me she could bring pictures and then make anything I wanted. I came back the next day, sat on yet another baby stool and worked on an order. The reason I had to sit for all this negotiating is that I'm quite sick with a cold at this point. The photo includes her son who is learning English.

The son on the right in this photo was also doing some translating for his very proud mother, but in this case he was translating from the native Huichol language to Spanish. This family was originally from Nyarit on the west coast of Mexico. They create the amazing beaded figures and yarn art that is embedded in beeswax. We will have a few new pieces of yarn art and beaded earrings to share when the shipment arrives. -kl