Day 12 and 13: Final Buys and Moving On

Saturday and Sunday, August 15 - 16: The Chiripa 2009 Summer Buying Trip to Mexico

Saturday was another trip out to Tzintzuntzan. JM walked the ruins while Beth did the market.


Beth is in search of cornhusk flowers. They are sold by the piece or in bunches of a dozen. We have never found them in other markets. We like to buy from the source, but, the "source" in this case is the market booth that distributes the flowers that are made in the homes of people in the area.

Back in Patzcuaro a total of four trips to Adame were required to get the textiles we needed. Although their storefront is conveniently located just off the Zocalo in Patzcuaro, it is small and carries much more than the table linens we buy. Enrique will go back to the workshop to get more of what we need. Stripes are the best sellers right now.


At some point, either Saturday evening or Sunday morning everythings is delivered to the Barro Sin Plomo/Echery Pottery office. Mitchell at Echery will carefully pack not only the pottery we've purchased and ordered from their local potters, he will pack the cornhusk flowers, the table linens, the baskets, the _____________ (fill in the blank). Each item will be marked "Made in Mexico/Hech en Mexico" along with the material in the product. The boxes will then wait at Echery to be picked up by our shipper in Guadalajara, Space Logistics. SL makes a weekly or more frequent trip to Patzcuaro.

Sunday noon Beth and JM leave Patzcuaro for a 4 hour bus ride to Guadalajara. Shopping begins bright and early Monday morning.





Michell Aguila Sanchez, Mr. Ship.

Day 11: The Lake Patzcuaro Loop

Friday, August 14: The Chiripa 2009 Summer Buying Trip to Mexico

Friday starts with a trip to the local market Patzcuaro. We find fun magnets here, but pass on the piles of pottery because we can't verify that it is Lead-Free. It's a very local market with things you'll find in typical Mexican homes.

A report on the day's activities included a tour guided by Dirceau and Beto of Echery Pottery. Places and people on the list:

The Juan Rosas Family in Capula

The Fernando Arroyo Family in Capula

The Nicolas Fabian Family in Santa Fe de la Laguna

A new potter [I wonder what he or she makes]

Isidro Lopez Saldivar, the stone carver in Tzintzuntzan [and I'm sure they didn't drive through this city without stopping for the cornhusk flowers that are a staple of the shop.]

And I wonder if they stopped at El Tirgre for lunch.

And then when back in Patzcuaro a trip to Once (11) Patios to look for delicately painted jewelry and barrettes. A very full day.

No time for photos on this post. You can search by any of the names above and see previous posts about the families and the art they produce. You can also search on our website for products we sell by these artisans.

Day 10: Back to Santa Clara del Cobre

Thursday, August 13: The Chiripa 2009 Summer Buying Trip to Mexico

Today's plan is to hop on a bus back out to Santa Clara del Cobre to meet with Lulu and Alfredo and to take in more of the copper fair. I'm confident that the day started with breakfast at I Turbe, a nice hotel with a restaurant serving a great breakfast and the best coffee we can find in Patzcuaro.

Starters: fruit plate, coffee, and little powder sugar cookies in the little basket.

This refreshing start is followed by a large plate of traditional Michoacan food . . . or pancakes.

Then it's a hike to the intersection where buses to Santa Clara pass frequently. The ride up the mountain (maybe "mountain" is exaggerated, but the elevation increases significantly) passes the daily life of Patzcuaro.

A flowering vine jumps out of it's humble surroundings.

Last February's trip to Santa Clara included a breakfast with Lulu Paz and her husband, Alfredo. Alfredo operates the furniture business that makes sinks and wood pieces with beautiful copper panels. Lulu operates a traditional copper storefront with a great copper-making demonstration area (not pictured here). The shop is called Casa Felicitas at Pino Suarez #88.

Lulu and Alfredo with February's travelers.

All over the city you can hear the "ping-ping" of hammer on copper and the whoosh of a bellows fire. The travelers are sure to have a full day of decision making. I'm hoping for some copper fair photos to share at a later date.

Day 9: Bus to Patzcuaro

Wednesday, August 12: The Chiripa 2009 Summer Buying Trip to Mexico

The travelers arrived in Patzcuaro and in the evening sent this email describing their bus trip and the subsequent trip up to Santa Clara del Cobre:

"We left SMA this morning on the 7:45 am bus and got here around 12:30 pm. We immediately left for Sta Clara where the copper fair is in full swing. Devils and dancers, Purepecha bands on stage, the square was full of folks. And there was a parade of sorts down the main drag -- a couple of toddlers in costume sitting on the hoods of cars. Yikes!

"Tonight we had a great meal at Primer Piso, sitting on the balcony overlooking the square [in Patzcuaro]." Beth

Copper judging and awards in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacan, Mexico 2008

No word on competition purchases this year. It's fun to put the photos with the winning pots that we can purchase. We try to encourage the young artists to continue their craft.

A winner in the 8-13 year-old division 2008

Days 7 and 8: San Miguel de Allende

Monday and Tuesday, August 10 and 11: The Chiripa 2009 Summer Buying Trip to Mexico

I have not received any communication about this leg of the trip, so, I'll go by the original plans for inventory buys and share what seems like an impossible list for two days.

The San Miguel de Allende Artisan Market. This is a strip of booths on both sides of a pedestrian walkway, maybe 3 or 4 "blocks" long. Besides local artisans, one can find rugs from Oaxaca and Huichol bead work from Nayarit.

It is at this market where we met Hector Bustamante.

Hector with his wife and daughter at the marketplace booth

His workshop called Luciano creates whimsical figures out of metal. We carry his catrinas and catrins, cats and dogs and angels. Perhaps the most loved piece he sells is the Tree of Life. It brings joy to people.

Other treasures at the market:

Inexpensive and popular blue painted clay figures, suns and boxes.
Coconut masks and coconut heads with bodies.
Tin star and angel ornaments for the coming holiday season.
Jewelry, milagros, Lotteria games . . . and the list goes on.

But there are other stops besides the market for these two short days:

Felix Bautista Ramirez was our first mirror maker.

Our first trip to Felix's was in the back of a pickup truck.

He lives outside the city and is often not reachable by phone. This requires resourcefulness and patience as we track him down to place an order. This time we'll be looking for more mirrors, his painted tin cacti, tin stars, and tin luminaries.

Felix with his wife and a pile of stars for Chiripa.

A second mirror maker, Ricardo Banda who, along with his family create differently styled mirrors that have proven popular in Wisconsin: mirrors with doors, oval highly decorated painted mirrors, as well as more traditional tile mirrors.


Ricardo also manufactures our metal switchplate covers. Maybe there will be something new from this visit.

A short distance from San Miguel de Allende is the city of Dolores Hidalgo. It is home to some colorful talavera pottery workshops.

We shop regularly at Liceagui right on the main drag i.e. bus route. Our supplies are not depleted from our trip here in February, but there are some special requests (a fish sink!) and some holes to fill in inventory.

Beth will make a new stop in Dolores Hidaldo at Chiles y Chiles the factory that makes the chili peppers we found last year at the trade show. It will be fun to see the operations and meet the people who make the colorful peppers that hang from the ceiling at the shop.

I'm hoping Beth and JM have time to stop in the Zocalo for some of the homemade ice cream. It's a special treat to pick out a flavor that we'd never find in the U.S.

With so many stops--not to mention a trip to the bank or money exchange to change travellers checks--those of us back in the US worry that meals are being missed. Rest will come on the bus ride tomorrow!

Day 6: In search of Etla

Sunday, August 9: The Chiripa 2009 Summer Buying Trip to Mexico

Eric Chavez (see Day 2) has offered to take the travelers to Etla, the paper city. We had made one attempt a couple years ago, but, either had the wrong city or the wrong day because we didn't find any paper products. What will they find: papel picado (cut paper banners) or pinatas, or????? We will have to wait for followup news on this adventure.

Plans then call for Beth and JM to bid farewell to Oaxaca and get back on a bus heading north to San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.

KZ will enjoy a couple days of leisure in Oaxaca before heading for home in Wisconsin.

Day 5: Shopping for Alebrijes

Saturday, August 8: The Chiripa 2009 Summer Buying Trip to Mexico

Arrazola, Oaxaca, Mexico is today's destination. The shoppers are in search of mid-price alebrijes, the colorful painted figures that are carved of wood.

The lizards at Chiripa come from the Arrazola workshop of Oscar Carillo and his wife Josefina. Oscar is the carver and Josefina the painter.







The lizards have become a trademark for our shop and adorn the walls and shelving ends. I've heard from Beth that the expedition was a success. I'll have to wait for the shipment to see the beautiful creatures.

Saturday night's activity is packing. This will be a marathon event. Every item that has been purchased to date will get two labels: "Made in Mexico" and "wood (or whatever it is)." Each piece will be carefully wrapped and packed in a box. (At some point boxes and bubblewrap and packing tape will have been procured.) Then each box will get a packing list detailing the contents, the source, and the material along with an address label for Madison, Wisconsin. These boxes will be picked up by Bulmaro who will see that they get sent to our shipper in Guadalajra along with the rugs we purchased from him.

Now that's a Saturday night!