Day of the Dead on the Ocotlan Highway 2023
Oaxaca City is at the apex of three valleys: Tlacolula, Etla and Ocotlan. Each is separated by a mountain range, so you have to go through the city to get to each. Yesterday, a group of 12 gathered in the city to explore some of the artisans along the Ocotlan Highway where villages specialize in […]
Travel Tips: How to Safely Pack Mezcal, Pottery for the Trip Home
It’s been some years since I wrote about how I pack mezcal bottles, pottery and other fragile artisan crafts to take back to the USA after my stay in Oaxaca. For the most part, I can claim 99.5% success that all will arrive undamaged. Only once, did a plate arrive broken! Basically, what I do […]
Saving Copal Trees in Oaxaca — Palo Que Habla Bioconservation Project
Copal is the tree used to carve the wooden figures we call alebrijes in Oaxaca. It is a disappearing resource. Thanks to Jacobo and Maria Angeles in San Martin Tilcajete, where many of the region’s alebrijes are made, there is a bioconservation project called Palo Que Habla to replant copal trees for the next generation […]
Mexico Mash Up Today– Silver Jewelry and Alebrijes for Sale
I’m representing a California collector who wants to divest. We are starting today with alebrijes, those whimsical copal wood carved and brightly painted figures from San Martin Tilcajete, Oaxaca. Plus, a grouping of four bracelets — cuffs and bangles. Three gorgeous pair of sterling earrings. More to come as the week unfolds. How to buy: […]
Que Supresa! Oaxaca in San Diego, California
As I drive south from my son’s home in Huntington Beach, California, on my way to visit Barbara and David, and dear friend Merry Foss in San Diego, I marvel at how the landscape looks like Mexico, how the climate feels like Mexico. Except there is development everywhere, new houses, shopping centers, freeway congestion. Infrastructure. […]
Shop Mexico–The Artisan Sisters: Oaxaca Carved & Painted Wood Alebrijes
Now that I’m back in North Carolina, I am looking at my Oaxaca folk art collection of whimsical, carved wood and hand-painted alebrijes. Wow, there are a lot of beautiful alebrijes from San Martin Tilcajete and San Antonio Arrazola, including some by famed Jacobo Angeles and his wife Maria. It’s now time to sell as […]
Shop Mexico: Week 3–Day of the Dead Extravaganza
The Artisan Sisters offer, on this Memorial Weekend Monday, unusual pieces by noted Oaxaca artisans who playfully render clay and wood into fanciful Day of the Dead figures. Today’s line-up: Josefina Aguilar, ceramic artist, Bertha Cruz, alebrijes painter, and Miguel Diaz. 1. First, we introduce you to The Happy Couple: Ready for a Stroll Around […]
Shop Mexico: Week 2 — Alebrijes + Animales
We are offering a weekly listing of handmade textiles, alebrijes, clothing, jewelry and other Mexican collectibles from Shop Mexico: The Artisan Sisters. This week we feature hand-carved copal wood alebrijes, whimsical Oaxaca figures that are painstakingly hand-painted, plus a sweet Chiapas alligator made of hand-felted and embroidered wool. Strike Up the Band. 3-figures, each approx, 6″ […]
Cows, Pigs, Calaveras: Carved Wood Figures of Placido Santiago Cruz
This week I was in Oaxaca city for two days visiting with silversmiths Brigitte Huet and Ivan Campant! I went with them to present their work at Susanna Trilling’s Seasons of My Heart Cooking School in San Lorenzo Cacaotepec. This mecca of the culinary arts is located about 40 minutes from the city in the […]
Oaxaca Artisans Fair at La Casa de las Bugambilias, July 16, 2011
Ten artists representing various mediums will show and sell their work at La Casa de las Bugambilias, Calle Reforma #402, Centro Historico Oaxaca, on Saturday, July 16, 2011. The fair will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the courtyard of the lovely bed and breakfast inn that is just around the corner […]
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: Eency, Teensy Oaxaca Dragon
Well, maybe not SO eency. She is only 4-1/2″ tall, this hand-carved and painted Dragon Miss (too frivolous to be a Dragon Lady). She actually looks more like a teenager dressed for the junior prom (do they still do that?) or a second date, all prettied up in her floral print, dressed to impress wouldn’t […]
Puech Ikots (Words of Our People) Collective Brings Economic Hope to Oaxaca’s Remote Highlands
Jenny Smith and I bumped into each other online. Virtual worlds connecting, so to speak. There was a strange name linked to hers: “Puech Ikots.” It peaked my curiosity and I discovered this artisans collective making alebrijes (fanciful carved and painted wood figures) in the remote mountains of the Sierra Madre del Sur. That presented […]
In Search of Bertha Cruz, Arrazola, Oaxaca: Poinsettias on the Dragon
Bertha Cruz is a young, talented painter of alebrijes. She has been a featured artist in Jacobo Angeles’ gallery in San Martin Tilcajete and the prices on her larger pieces (if you can find them) can command up to $500 USD or even more! Bertha’s husband does the carving of the the copal wood and […]
Pan Comida! Piece of Cake!
After hours of preparation, Eric and Janet hosted a free 3-hour after school workshop yesterday afternoon for Chatham County, NC teachers, for which they received in-service training credits from the school district. There were seven teachers. “The right people always show up,” I reassured them after a few expressed the wish that more would have […]
Editing My Collection: Oaxaca Folk Art & Textiles Sale
From time to time, I edit my collection and offer a small number of rugs, hand woven shawls, blouses, pillow covers and other Oaxaca textiles for sale. These include some beautiful cotton brocade blouses hand woven on a backstrap loom from the Amusgos tribe and embroidered beauties from Tehuantepec. The tops from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec […]
The Quest: La Union Tejalapan and Gabino Reyes
It is no small feat to get to La Union. It is not on the map. None of us had been there before, including Eric who was born an raised in Teotitlan. The little Chevy that could was packed with Eric driving, our two photographer friends, Sam (a “she”) and Tom, Stephen and me. We […]
Ocotlan, Alebrijes & Susanna Harp
Yesterday we were on the road at 8:30 a.m., picking up the two Linda’s in the city and heading out to the big Friday market day at Ocotlan, the village of artist Rudolfo Morales, about 45 minutes by car from Oaxaca along a busy two lane road. For a while, we followed a truck loaded […]