Santa Maria Atzompa Mercado de Artesanias

The central market in Atzompa is an artists cooperative full of ceramics of all different colors and styles that represent the work made by potters of this renown village.  It is about 20 minutes outside the city of Oaxaca very close to the archeological site of Monte Alban, so you can make a day of it (or a half-day) if you wish.  We only had time to visit the central market and didn’t visit my favorite potter Dolores Porras or explore some of the other independent and highly acclaimed potters of the village.  But what we saw at the central market was a range of deep green glazed and earth colored and brightly decorated hand painted ware, plus some very interesting clay sculptures, cut out vases, lamps, and other assorted dishware.  The quality ranged from poor to good, from primitive to quite sophisticated.  We spent about an hour there meandering the aisles to choose a few pieces to take home.  Prices were very modest.  I paid about $1.75 for a painted butterfly wall hanging, $7 for a string of hand sculpted clay animals playing musical instruments, and $4 for a natural clay angel playing a violin.