How We Bring Beauty to You--part 1

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

 

How do we bring the finest handmade crafts from remote Mexican villages to you? With a lot of love and hard work!  

 Corn platter by Nicolas Fabian, Santa Fe de la Laguana, Michoacan, Mexico.

Chiripa is hoping to have more in stock soon.

We personally visit dedicated Mexican artisans in their homes and family workshops. We hand-select works that have a human story to tell. We buy directly from the artisans, so they get the best possible return for their work. We pay in advance, and trust the artisans to deliver. They have never disappointed us. We have found sublime beauty in humble places, and made many wonderful friends. That more than compensates for the extra work. 

On our latest trip to Mexico, we visited the old colonial towns of Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende, as well as Patzcuaro in the highlands of Michoacán. We especially love Patzcuaro, which is within striking distance of a number of indigenous villages producing elegant crafts. On our latest trip, a typical day in Patzcuaro went like this: 

 

We threw off woolen blankets after a cold night, and took (brief) lukewarm showers. Donning sweaters, we went out for hot coffee and breakfast. Joggers were taking gentle morning turns around the sweet old plaza. The soft light filtered through the tall trees and warmed the adobe walls. After breakfast, we jettisoned our sweaters and put on baseball caps. Then to work!

We plunged into the labyrinthine public market to find the tiny stall belonging to Salvador Farran, one of just two remaining practitioners of the traditional Purepecha silver jewelry craft.

You should not expect to find Señor Farfan’s jewelry stall without an expert guide; but, if you want to try, you should look near the large collection of butcher stalls that have unrefrigerated beef sides, pig heads and strings of spicy red and green chorizo prominently on offer.

With a little luck, we found Señor Farfan. To the sound of hacking meat cleavers, we purchased some delicate hand-wrought traditional jewelry for Chiripa. 

We squinted as we emerged from the dark warren of the market. To save time, we divided our forces: some went to the basilica market to buy pine needle baskets, bracelets, weavings and carvings from the indigenous vendors. Others, drawing the short straw, went to the bank to exchange traveler’s checks for cash (artisans in remote villages do not accept credit cards, wire transfers or like forms of payment). The bank never cashes traveler’s checks with undue haste, so there was time to shop most of the basilica market. -JKM

The day in Patzcuaro will continue . . .

Purépecha Silver

From the log kept on the August 2011 Chiripa buying trip to Mexico.

Pátzcuaro, in the mountains of Michoacán, is cooler and wetter than Guadalajara. Salvador Farfán García and his son Gustavo are the last remaining practitioners of the traditional Purépecha silver craft in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. Salvador’s world renowned cousin Jesús Garcia Zavala, who also studied under the great maestro Casares, died a couple of years ago.

We decided to locate Salvador, but it was not easy. With luck, we managed to get Gustavo’s address from a jewelry retailer in Pátzcuaro. 

The walk past Once Patios.

The path led us past the Casa de las Once Patios, where a blind accordionist plays every day in hopes of getting a few coins from passersby. 

The mournful chords seemed as timeless and melancholy as the ancient adobe walls. We climbed the steep cobbled stairway to the hill above, from which there is a magnificent view of the city, mountains and lake.

Pátzcuaro at the top of the stairs.

We wandered through the quiet little residential district that sits up on the hill. At last, with some friendly help from local residents, we found Gustavo’s home. Gustavo graciously showed us his little workshop, where he makes fine silver jewelry on a tree stump using hammers, files, and other simple hand tools. 

Beth watches Gustavo at work on the stump.

Gustavo carefully forms a sphere from a flat disc.

Gustavo files a silver fish.

Then, he led us back down to the center of town to meet his father (from whom he learned the silver craft). 

Our pilgrimage took us to Pátzcuaro’s public market. Following Gustavo’s lead, we plunged into a warren of covered walkways – so dark and crowded that they seemed like underground tunnels. Finally, in a most unlikely location opposite a meat vendor’s stall, we found Salvador’s tiny little shop.

We picked out a fine selection of pieces, including a magnificent fish necklace of a kind that Purépecha brides-to-be traditionally received as a toke of their betrothal. We also chose hand-wrought silver earrings of a kind found nowhere else in the world. See them for yourself at Chiripa!  -JKM

Salvador and Gustavo Farfan with some of their creations.



Earrings available from Chiripa.