Why buy an object made by hand when they can be machine manufactured for less? There is something in our post industrial psyche that makes us long for a pre industrial past. Somehow encapsulated within these objects it appears to exists or be within reach.

The objects are not made on the production line but made and judged with the human hand and eye. Their making is not hurried and rushed but marks a gentler passing of time.

The objects are not perfect. The glass often has bubbles or marks where the tools where used to form it. But beauty as determined by the

The pieces often reflect the character of the individual makers. A metaphorical handprint is left on the object.

In the Oaxacan villages where the woodcarving comes from, some of the makers have transformed their lives through carving. The ceramists have with the help of the World Bank been able to make their pottery with lead free glazes and expand their market into the USA.

Some of the potters will dig the clay themselves to make ceramics. The carvers cut the wood to make the wooden carving and the weavers grow the cotton to make the bags. Artisans are frequently involved in all parts of the making process.

Often almost the whole village is involved in the production of a particular craft item. Around lake Patzcuaro craft communities established by the enlightend Bishop Quiroga in the seventeenth century still continue to make their designated craft.

Sometimes a new tradition such as the wooden creatures form Oaxaca or the ceramic figures from Ochmochi springs up and sometimes it is a tradition that has been past from generation to generation such as weaving on a back strap loom or making burnished copper pots.