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OAXACAN CRAFTS:
woodcarving, pottery, basketery, weaving, textiles and embroidery
Pottery
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Pottery making is one of the oldest and most enduring crafts of Mexico. Its production depends on the four elements sacred to the ancient peoples of Mesoamerica: earth, water, wind, fire. Every market place sells handmade pottery that is used daily in millions of households.
A new lead-free glaze has recently been invented as a result of a world-wide competition, removing a negative characteristic that has hurt sales (native people “cure” their pottery with garlic and other methods before using). Oaxaca pottery originates in a handful of villages, is produced by traditional methods and marketed all over the world. It is softer than more commercial ceramics made in Puebla and Guanajuato and not as resistant to breakage, but it is much less expensive and can be carried home or shipped safely when well packed. Look for this pottery in the markets of Oaxaca City, the Tlacolula market on Sundays, and in the villages.
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When buying pottery, check it for defects such as cracks, and chips, and places where handles are attached that may be weak due to less-than-perfect manufacture. Part of the charm of handmade pottery is its asymmetrical form and individuality. Each coat of glaze is different, sometimes with drips of rich green splashing over the tan clay base. An old Mexican proverb goes, “Better grace without perfection, than perfection without grace.”
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Atzompa is one of the great traditional pottery villages of Oaxaca, producing pottery with an oxide of copper, semi-transparent green glaze on a tan clay. Atzompa ware is both decorative and utilitarian, including jars, vases, pitchers, candle holders, casseroles, small trays, open dishes, animals playing musical instruments, and other small figures. The casseroles are lovely enough for an elegant table and come with or without handles, small to very large, and flat or round-bottomed. A reed ring called a “rodete” (made in Santa María Coyotepec) keeps the rounded jars and dishes from tipping over on a table.
Atzompa is famous for the prevalent use of a rudimentary wheel which is no more than a plate or saucer balanced on a round rock or over-turned saucer, which they revolve with the lump of clay on top. The town is the source of natural clay (once-fired) large jars and figures, candlesticks and plates with small bits of clay added for decoration. The late Teodora Blanco invented this technique called “pastillaje”; her children and grandchildren carry on the tradition. Dolores Porras and her husband Alfredo Regino have been the innovators of numerous styles and techniques including the use of multi-color glazes. On Fridays in Atzompa as the potters get ready for week-end markets, from the hill above town you can see the smoke rising from all the kilns in the backyards. When cool, the thousands of pots are packed in big “carrizo” baskets for transport.
The thriving market town of OCOTLAN de MORELOS south of Oaxaca and Coyotepec is a center for the production of ceramics. The traditional pottery is a utilitarian bowl of dark tan clay with an orange slip, usually decorated with white leaves, flowers and birds. A good deal of it is available at the Friday markets. The stars of the pottery industry, however, are the four Aguilar sisters. The sisters, Guillermina, Irene, Josefina, and Concepción and their families all live next to one another. The Aguilars learned their trade from mother Isaura Alcántara. Guillermina is the oldest, then Josefina with 3 children in the business, Irene with 3, and Concepción together with her 3 daughters.
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Each sister has her own specialty within the general subject of village ladies elaborated in various ways. All show in major museums in Mexico and abroad; Irene demonstrates in the U.S. regularly, and they have a large international clientele. Their figures of women with bell-shaped skirts as the base of the sculpture, carry fruit in baskets, flowers, turkeys, animals and the other things one finds in markets, or perhaps the sun, moon and stars! Irene and Guillermina produce ladies of the night, exotic creatures with some key anatomy showing. Josefina and Concepción create astounding scenes of multiple figures as well: weddings, nativities, even whole town plazas with palm trees and a bandstand full of musicians.
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In Santa Maria Tavehua a Mixe Indian village in the Sierra of Juárez there are a number of families who produce red-orange utilitarian ware and figures of animals (iguana, deer, rabbits playing musical instruments, pigs, dogs, and turtles), also human figures that are popular saints or figure in wedding groups, nativities and other important occasions. Other Mixe villages in the Sierra of Juárez do similar work, but that of Santa María is preferred. A local cooking pot called a “patojo”, like a shoe, has a handle and protruding end like a toe, so as to nestle in hot coals. Also from this region come two pre-Hispanic forms. Jars are made with two necks (one may be an animal head) and a spout in between; and “bules” are made like a gourd water carrier, with double bulb shapes, one on top of the other.
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In San Marcos Tlapazola, southwest of Tlacolula in the mountains there is a women's cooperative that makes almost entirely utilitarian ware of red clay sparkling with tiny silica flakes: large and small “comales” (griddles), low round and oval bowls, and large jars. The silica embedded in the clay gives them curious shiny flecks and an over-all subtle luster. The pottery is finished by wiping a red-orange slip on the surface with a corn cob before firing. Hot wood ash makes characteristic black smudges when it fuses with the slip.
In certain barrios of the city, small factories specialize in the common man's inexpensive clay dish ware called “losa criolla”, made on a potter's wheel. It is a low-fired reddish clay enhanced by glazes somewhat carelessly and freely applied in white, blue, red, and green to create flower-like patterns, swirls, drips, and splashes. Common forms are small to large bowls (for eating fruits, cereal, etc., up to salad bowl size); plates, cups and saucers, pitchers, and oval serving dishes.
Some interesting and unusual forms of traditional pottery come from the Isthmus. The first type is from the San Blas Atempa Barrio in Tehuantepec, and the Santa Rita Barrio in the town of Asunción Ixtaltepec. This is the “tinaca de mujer”, a water cooler in the form of a tall lady made of red clay. She has a bell-shaped skirt, tiny pointed breasts and is three to four feet tall (too big to be made on a potter's wheel, the artist walks around the figure backwards to shape it). The lady carries a shallow bowl bearing sand on her head. Perched in the sand is a water jug decorated with lizards, perhaps turtles in low relief. The water in the jug evaporates, cools the sand and is kept cool in turn. The potters of Ixtaltepec also make flower pots, plates and “comixcales”, which are barrel-shaped pots with an open end for frying “totopos”, the golden tortillas of the Isthmus.
Contemporary taste keeps another type of pottery ware from the Isthmus in demand, originally used to store rainwater: the handsome, well-made orange clay, unglazed flower pots. They are produced in Juchitán and the San Blas Barrio of Tehuantepec on the kick or potters’ wheel. Large quantities of these mammoth, reasonably-priced pots are exported annually. Though made in the Isthmus you can request both types in Oaxaca.
Unique clay toys are the invention of all three Isthmus towns, garishly decorated with gilt and enamel paint and called tanguyœs. They come in the forms of little ladies dressed as for a gala and a long-legged horses. These were originally presents for the “D’a de los Reyes” but now are given on other occasions as well. As part of a traditional dance in Tehuantepec called the Dance of the Tanguyœ, also presented as part of the Guelaguetza in Oaxaca, ladies dance with the clay figures on their heads.
 MAP OF OAXACA CENTRAL VALLEYS: Archeological sites and craft villages.
Archeological sites in Oaxaca: Monte Albán, Mitla, Yagul, Dainzu, Mogote.
Craft villages in the central valleys of Oaxaca: Tottitlan del Valle (weaving), Atzompa (greeen pottery), Arazola (wood carving), San Bartolo Coyotepec (black pottery), Ocotlan (clay figures, woven baskets).
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