Gratitude

As we in the United States get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, I am full of gratitude for both the talented Mexican artisans and our appreciative customers we have met through this small business known as Mexico By Hand. Below are a few of the hardworking artists who put their hearts and souls into the pieces they produce, the precious pieces we pack and ship to this country for you to buy and bring home-- so that you may add more pleasure to your lives. I give thanks to you, our dedicated fans and supporters who come to every sale, who express your appreciation for the art and encourage our efforts to continue bringing it to the U.S. We wouldn't be here without you.
We send you love and appreciation, and our wishes for many blessings for you and yours during the holidays.
Peggy Stein,
Mexico By Hand

Martina Navarro, maque

Zenaida Rafael Julian, clay sculpture

Herlinda Morales, clay candelabras

Martin Espicio, clay pots

Fernando Arroyo, lead free pottery

Felipe Horta, maskmaker

Jose Guadalupe Hernandez Cano, burnished pottery

Robert Castro Hernandez, hammered copper

Teofila Servin, embroidery

Ana Luisa Cano, weaving

To see and purchase folk art and crafts by these and other artisans of Michoacán, please go to our website at www.mexicobyhand.com.  We thank you for your support!

When traditional is progressive

Artisan making pine needle baskets

If you're a left-leaning social progressive, there are some cultural traditions that you would probably like to get rid of: patriarchy, child abuse, and big game hunting to name a few. On the other hand, there are some traditional cultural expressions that many of us recognize need preserving-- and indigenous folk art and handmade crafts fit into that category. When traditional art is also sustainable or "eco-friendly", when artisans utilize natural resources and production techniques that benefit the environment and the health of the local community, then that it is also progressive and something we should all support. And if purchasing a beautiful handmade piece of art to enrich our own lives is how we show our support for struggling artisans in Mexico, then that's a good thing to do because we all benefit.

Indigenous coastal artisans burnishing their pottery

Copper artisan from Santa Clara del Cobre

Since 2004, Mexico By Hand has been buying extraordinary handmade traditional crafts and folk art directly from award-winning artisans in Michoacán, Mexico. We feature beautiful handwoven baskets made from pine needles, paper mache figures made from newspaper, and gorgeous hammered copper vases created from 100% recycled copper scrap. We also seek out artisans who have converted to using lead-free glazes and create beautiful food safe pottery, like these below:

If you appreciate the crafts you see here, please check out our website: www.mexicobyhand.com 
and like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/mexicobyhand.
Wholesale customers are welcome! Contact us at: info@mexicobyhand.com or call 510.526.6395

Purepecha Indian Crafts-- A Mexican Treasure

The state of Michoacán is home to four indigenous groups-- the Purepecha being the largest of those, and the culture that is responsible for most of the exquisite crafts and folk art from the region. The Purepecha, sometimes spelled Purhépecha, and also called Tarascan (but that's a long story) developed the most advanced pre-Columbian society in western Mexico. They resisted Aztec domination for decades, only to be brutally defeated by the Spanish in the early 16th century. Today the Purepecha number a little over 120,000.

The Purhépecha language has been called a hybrid Mesoamerican language. Some researchers have suggested that it is distantly related to Quechua, one of the man languages in the Andean zone of South America. For this reason, it has been suggested that the Purhépecha may have arrived in Mexico from Peru and may be distantly related to the Incas. The language also has some similarities to that spoken by the Zuni Indians of New Mexico. 

The ancient Purepecha inhabitants were farmers and fishermen, but later became skilled weavers and became known for their feathered mosaics made from hummingbird plumage. With time, these gifted people also became skilled craftsmen in metalworking, pottery, and wood and stone carving. Below are a just a few of the pottery styles created by traditional Purepecha communities:

Burnished pots from Huancito

Marta Espicio of Huancito

Zenaida Rafael Julian, award-winning artist of Ocumicho

Glazed candelabras by Herlinda Morales of Santa Fe de la Laguna

Maque, a lacquerware made only in Michoacán, is a Pre-Columbian technique using pigments made from plants and insects.

Martina Navarro, master maque artisan

Hammered copper art has been made in the village of Santa Clara del Cobre going back about 500 years in small workshops like the one below.

Workshop of Roberto Castro Hernandez

Purepecha women in dozens of villages around the state make beautiful rebozos and embroidered blouses like those pictured here.

Cecilia Bautista, master weaver of Ahuiran

To see more art by extraordinary Purepecha artisans, please go to www.mexicobyhand.com where many items are available for purchase. Our mission is to promote the work of talented artisans of Michoacán. By bringing their beautiful handmade goods to a wider market, artists are able to support their families and communities and ensure that their traditions survive.

For more information about Michoacán history and the Purepecha people I recommend the following website by historian,  John Schmal: http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/michoacan.html

Art That Sustains Communities and Mother Earth

Question: What do you give the person who has everything?
Answer: Something beautiful made by someone who has next to nothing.
When that something will help sustain a family, a culture, and the Earth, then we can all smile.
I'm talking about sustainable crafts made by indigenous Mexican artisans:
Handmade traditional pottery that is created from local clay deposits, decorated without lead or other chemicals that are harmful to the artisans, their families, and consumers. Use these bowls, plates, or pots to serve healthy, natural food and it will all look and taste better.




















Use this lead-free clay cookware to cook your beans on the stove and then serve on your table. The beans will have more flavor and your guests will sing your praises. For more info. on CocinaSana, our clay cookware, go to www.cocinasanamexico.blogspot.com





Gorgeous hammered copper vases like these are made in Santa Clara del Cobre from 100% recycled copper...old telephone wire, pipe, and motor parts. Add one of these stunning pieces to your table, fill it with flowers and your life will be better...I promise. Give one to a friend or lover, and you will be spreading happiness.
Baskets made with pine needles from Mexico's forests, and tule reeds from Lake Patzcuaro-- all sustainable products that come from the Earth and can be used to beautifully serve your bread and tortillas. Say no to plastic, and yes to natural products that enhance our lives.

Support artisans who are trying to maintain their culture, their families and their communities by buying traditional, sustainable crafts. For more info. or to purchase, please go to: www.mexicobyhand.com

Mexican Women Make Art and History

As we celebrate Women's History Month 2011, change is happening all over the world. From Egyptian women demonstrating their desire for democracy, to girls attending school for the first time in Afghanistan, to young women now outnumbering men in American universities.
Recently I have personally encountered a profound change also going on in indigenous communities in our neighbor to the south-- Mexico. I hope to share with you the stories and struggles of these indigenous women, as they continue to create beautiful traditional art, working towards a better future for their children. Here are a few snippets from interviews with three women in Michoacán for my video, "En las manos de las mujeres":
"I had the desire to continue my education after
secondary school (8th grade) but my parents wouldn't let me. They said, 'Your brothers will study, but you're a woman...you don't need to study because you won't do anything with it.' My three brothers didn't care about getting an education so they didn't study further... and I, the one who wanted to study...they didn't allow me to."-- Herlinda Morales.
Herlinda grew up in Santa Fe de la Laguna, a Purépecha Indian village on the edge of Lake Patzcuaro-- a place where girls and women usually need to ask the man of the house for permission to go out for any reason-- including to attend classes. Herlinda ignored the gossips and critics to participate in workshops for women artisans, where she learned how to get a better price for her pottery, and about the dangers of using leaded glazes on her clay candelabras. These were lessons that changed her life and caused her eleven years ago to convert her clay workshop to being lead-free, so that her family home and her community's environment would no longer be contaminated from the clay process. Herlinda says it is difficult to make change, but she is working so that her daughter will have a better life than the women who came before her. Here's an excerpt of an interview we did with Herlinda Morales.


Zenaida Rafael Julian (left) quit school in the 3rd grade when her father took off; her mother had to go to work and Zenaida was needed at home to cook and care for her siblings. At age 13, Zenaida's mother began to teach her daughter to make the painted clay figures the village of Ocumicho is known for. When her mother died, Zenaida at age 23 became the sole support of her four younger siblings. She now has 3 children of her own, and refuses to marry. "I prefer to stay single, that way no one can tell me I can't go to a festival or exhibit my art. Here, husbands scold their wives and don't let them leave... because they're jealous I think." This independent lifestyle has caused a lot of gossip in the village, but there is also a great deal of admiration and envy of Zenaida, as she has won dozens of local, state, and national prizes for her work, and today at age 39, is considered to be the finest artist in Ocumicho.

Teofila Servin Barriga (above) left her home on the Santa Cruz rancho near Tzintzuntzan and worked as a servant so that she could attend school in Patzcuaro. She said when she was a child looking up at the airplanes flying overhead, she never dreamed that one day she would be flying in one of those planes to the United States-- on her way to exhibit her embroideries at the prestigious Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. "One of the many things I've learned as an artisan is to value myself... I was afraid sometimes to leave my home-- it was a challenge. But this is the best school one could have in life...it's how we learn. Whatever the obstacle, if we make an effort, we women can make our dreams come true."

Folk art and crafts by these and other artisans of Michoacán is available for sale at: www.mexicobyhand.com

In Celebration of the Olmecs

I've written about the Hernandez Cano workshop several times before. They have been a favorite of ours for a long time, and it's great that these artisans are finally being recognized by others for their unique, beautiful burnished pottery featuring Pre-Columbian designs. Numerous of their pieces are now on display in the museum store of the de Young Museum in San Francisco-- to coincide with the upcoming Olmec exhibit.
The Olmecs are most known for the their colossal stone heads and were considered to be the mother culture of Mesoamerica. This artisan workshop, located in Zinapecuaro, Michoacán, specializes in replicating an ancient pottery technique and Pre- Columbian designs. The photo above was taken at the workshop when we picked up the museum's order. Several pieces shown here are part of the stunning collection currently on sale at the de Young. The guys did their best work for this San Francisco show, and we are so pleased to be able to share it with folks in the Bay Area who appreciate fine Mexican crafts.
I love the creativity of this family, and how they all work together, with the younger generation now taking more of a role in both creating new designs and managing the business. I'll never forget my surprise when my first big order in 2005 was written down with pencil on notebook paper. They still use spiral notebooks, but now I am able to place orders via email with Salvador Hernandez Cano's son, German. I am happy to see this technology come to rural Mexico, and thankful that their friendly, honest way of doing business has not changed one bit.
















Salvador Hernandez Cano of Zinapecuaro.















If you're interested in seeing more of the burnished pottery from the Hernandez Cano family workshop, please contact Mexico By Hand at: www.mexicobyhand.com or call (510)526-6395

And check out our other blog posts on ceramics with Pre-Columbian designs.

Lead-Free Clay Cookware

"You can put them on the stove??" is a frequent question from many people when they see this clay cookware. No offense intended, but that's like asking a salesperson if you can wear a raincoat in the rain. Umm...that's what they're for. Es para cocinar. Or to translate into English, "It's for cooking". The amazing thing about these casseroles and pots (and the molera above) is not that you can put them directly on a gas flame or wood fire-- or inside the oven--but that they're from Mexico, and they are LEAD FREE. Most Americans don't realize that even though it has been the law for several years that all pottery designed for food use must be lead free, what you usually get in Mexico-- still-- has lead in the glaze. So most likely the stuff sold as "vintage" collectibles on eBay is full of lead, as is most of the cheap pottery sold in the markets all around Mexico. However this pottery, which is exported by a non-profit organization in Mexico called Barro Sin Plomo, which means lead free clay, is the only Mexican clay cookware imported to the U.S. that is certified lead free.

Using lead free pottery is better for your health, and for the health of the Mexican artisans and their families whose workshops are no longer contaminated with lead dust. The earnings from the pottery sales provide essential economic support for families in several poor Mexican communities, and are also used in the campaign to encourage more artisans to give up the use of lead in their clay process.
I mentioned the usual reaction by Americans to this cookware, but there is also a typical response from Mexicanos or Mexican-Americans when they see it here in the United States. Young and old, men and women, most react emotionally, remembering an abuelita who used to cook amazing sopa, frijoles, or mole in simple pots just like these. They know that the food tastes better cooked in clay-- no convincing needed there. This is part of their cultura, and the memories and feelings are strong. So many of these folks, while they have adapted to the American style of supermarket shopping and food preparation, remember a time when there was always a pot of something delicious on the fire, cooking nice and slow, all day long.
The family's meal was homemade, and the clay pot used for cooking it was handmade... like this one on the right, which is part of our new product line we're calling Cocina Sana (healthy kitchen) through Mexico By Hand.
For more information, or to purchase lead-free clay cookware, please go to www.mexicobyhand.com
or contact us at: (510) 526-6395.
Wholesale customers of Cocina Sana are most welcome.


See traditional clay cookware being used today in Mexico in the beautiful video below from UNESCO.