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  • Royal Academy Hispanic Exhibition The duchess of Alba 1797 Francisco De Goya

    Milagros | Spain and the Hispanic World | Royal Academy of Arts

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    Milagros was honoured to have supplied much of the merchandise for the Royal Academy’s (RA) Spain and the Hispanic World exhibition (21.01.23-10.04.23), which showcased treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum and Library. This museum was founded in 1904 by Archer Milton Huntington to house his collection, in New York.

     

    The exhibition featured masterpieces, by Goya and Velasquez, alongside dazzling objects from Latin America such as paintings, silk textiles, ceramics, lusterware, silverwork, jewellery, maps, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, and stunning decorative lacquerware. Some of the 16th century pieces from Mexico came from towns that are still producing similar work.

     

    The Hispanic Society Museum boasts an extensive collection of art that influenced Spain and art influenced by Spain as well as Spanish art. This presents an opportunity to trace the diversity of cultures and religions from Celtic to Islamic, Jewish, and Christian that have shaped and enriched what we understand as Hispanic culture today. This exhibition was the first time that these treasures were presented in the UK.

    Milagros worked with the RA to supply their shop with hand-made objects from present-day Mexico. The influences behind these Mexican hand crafted products could be seen in the exhibition. For example the Mexican tiles, that we sell are still hand-made using techniques passed on from the Chinese to the Moors, the Moors to the Spanish and the Spanish to their empire in the new world.

    Milagros has worked directly with artists, makers, and family-run workshops in Mexico for the past 30 years. These include glassblowers, tile makers, tin makers, textile artists, woodcarvers, and basket makers.

    In recent years, besides working with the Royal Academy, Milagros has also worked with the Victoria and Albert Museum in promoting the hand-made work of Mexican artists and makers. Milagros hopes to continue with such collaborations in the future.

    Milagros has a shop in East London at 61 Columbia Road, open Monday to Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm, and on Sunday from 9 am to 5pm. All the work which was available from the RA shop during the exhibition can still be bought from Milagros, both in our shop and online.

  • Columbia Road Christmas Wednesdays

    Christmas Wednesdays are back for 2021

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    Columbia Road Christmas Wednesdays

    We are delighted to announce that the Christmas Wednesdays are back. Join us for an evening of mulled wine, Christmas carols, hot chocolate and much more. The shops on Columbia Road will be open from 5 – 9 pm on the four Wednesdays in December 2021, along with carols from St Peters Church Bethnal Green.

    This is the chance to enjoy the wealth of creative and lovely gift ideas stocked by over 50 independent retailers on Columbia Road without the Sunday crowds or having to queue.

    Longer opening hours at Milagros on Wednesdays this year will ensure that you can shop and browse in comfort and at your leisure at a time of day to suit you as we will be open from 11 AM on Wednesdays in December.

    Here is a list of some of our favourites shops along the street

  • London day of the dead

    London’s Day of the Dead Festival 30th October 2021

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    “The Mexican is familiar with death. [He] jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it. It is one of his favourite toys and his most steadfast love.”

    Octavio Paz: ‘The Labyrinth of Solitude’

    London day of the dead

    The Day of the Dead is, despite its name, a joyful celebration honouring the passing of loved ones. On this day it is believed that the spirits of the ancestors return. They are honoured and remembered by their families and friends on Earth. Flowers are an intrinsic part of the festival . Yellow flowers such as marigolds, are used to decorate homes so the spirits can find their way home. Flowers symbolise the transience of life.

    Columbia Road Shops will be celebrating London’s Day of the Dead Festival on 30th October 2021 from 12pm onwards.

    The Street is a stage and we invite you to join us & come other than you are.

    Expect Mariachis, a day of the dead beauty parlour, Day of the Dead Yoga at 12pm, a parade at 2pm and  4pm, a skeleton mermaid sings Besame Mucho,  a skeleton family & the best dressed dog competition …..

  • Frea

    Frea Buckler

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    Frea

    Milagros has partnered with artist Frea Buckler to offer an edition of six new encaustic tile patterns. These are inspired by the work of Modernist Mexican architects Luis Barragán and Ricardo Legoretta – two brilliant visionaries whose use of bright colour, clean lines, carefully formulated compositions, and homage to inflections of pre-Columbian design helped birth a modern and optimistic Mexican aesthetic. 

    Legretta

    Tiles are in fact particularly emblematic of Mexico’s complex design heritage, and their story is one that wends its way around the globe following both trade routes and colonialism. The blue and white pottery of imperial China can be traced into the iconic ‘azulejos’ of Portugal, and similarly, encaustic tiles originated in the 1500s in Spain, at that time still highly influenced by a Moorish aesthetic. These tiles were used as ballast on galleons destined for Mexico – effectively placeholder weight, in anticipation of the ships being loaded up with treasures from the New World destined back for Spain. However, encaustic tiles eventually started being made more cheaply in Mexico, and today Milagros sources theirs from a small family-run workshop in Patzcauro. 

     

    Encaustic tiles are a particularly sustainable building choice: being made of concrete, they’re extremely hard-wearing. Their pigmentation gives an extraordinary depth of colour, especially after they start to develop a patina from use and age. Spanish monasteries have encaustic floors which are still looking gorgeous after half a millennium!

    These tiles measure 20 x 20cm, and are made using molds similar to cookie cutters, in a hydraulic press. Their pigmented surfaces are 5mm deep, and composed of marble dust and cement. The body of the tile is then made of a concrete derived from volcanic stone aggregate. Given the small scale of the operation, variations in colour do occur. For Milagros, this is part of their joy. The weathered blues, well-mellowed yellows, pinks and oranges of this edition evoke the deep calm of sun-saturated afternoons. 

     

    Frea Buckler is a Bristol-based artist working in installation, screenprint, and sculpture. Her practice centres on colour, and the interplay between urban and domestic forms. She studied at Central St Martins and the University of West England, Bristol. Her work has featured at the Royal Academy and Davidson Gallery in New York, among others. 

    Legoretta - 7

    ‘The repeating nature and modularity of tile patterns was really interesting to me’, Buckler says of the project. ‘There wasn’t just the pattern of the individual tiles to consider, but the overall impression they would make in a grid, and the almost endless possibilities of rotating them against one another. In my own work, I often avoid pattern, choosing instead to opt for asymmetry.’ She adds that it was a pleasure to operate within the constraints set by the tile-makers themselves: she had to develop her designs within a limited colour palette. Drawing on her practice of screen-printing (and, indeed, some of her own screen prints), the tiles’ manufacturing process also felt very intuitive to Buckler, which permitted a high degree of improvisation. Having worked on them so intently, she would love to bring them into a gallery context – ‘they’d make a great installation!

    SDT - Frea
  • Acapulco chairs

    Just say  the words and we’ll beat the birds down to Acapulco Bay…

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    Acapulco chairs

    The port and resort city of Acapulco lies on Mexico’s Pacific Coast and features in more than one song. In its heyday in the mid-20th century, it was a romantic getaway for the international jet set: Elizabeth Taylor married Richard Burton for the second time there, and Jackie and John F. Kennedy honeymooned there. And it gave its name to a one of the great classics of 20th century design. The Acapulco chair has no known designer, though Mexican Cecilia Len Barra claimed to have given it its name. One persistent rumour surrounding the Acapulco chair’s origins is that a French tourist was suffering in the Mexican heat and took his cue from the string hammocks, which date back to the Mayans, to create an aerated seat.

    Petrol blue Acapulco chair Mexican furniture

    Whatever its origins, the Acapulco chair represents the happy marriage of Modernist theories of furniture, the joyous colours of the mid-century tourism industry, and classic elements of Mexican design. The chairs’ tripod structure recalls pre-colonial artifacts and can be seen in several traditional items still being made today: morcajetes carved from volcanic stone, for instance, or pottery. (Their three legs are also much better for uneven ground, which makes them a good choice for outdoor furniture!

     

    They can come in a range of shapes (round, avocado-shaped, or with a straight seat and back), but are composed of steel frames, which are then strung with extruded polythene. This stringing is continuous, and the result is that the chairs can adapt to the weight of the person sitting in them, making them incredibly comfortable. This concern for the body of the sitter makes them of a piece with all the other famous chairs of the twentieth century – the Panton, the Wishbone, the Wassily, or anything by the Eameses.

    Acapulco chair

    We source our Acapulco chairs from a tiny family-run workshop in the state of Guanajuato. They get the frames from a nearby foundry, and do the stringing themselves. Whenever Tom visits, he chooses out the colours himself, and if often able to combine the trip with a dip in a local thermal spring, so, we’re told, “It’s relaxing on all accounts”. Once the chairs are assembled, they cannot be dismantled. Given their unusual shape and how much volume they occupy, you can imagine that they are quite difficult to ship! Consequently we only have very limited stock of them. But we can guarantee that margaritas taste extra delicious when sipped in one!
    That’s all from us for the moment. We’ll have some other exciting announcements in months to come, but for now, please enjoy your summers and hasta luego!

    Salud, Milagros

  • Suzy tiling with rosa tiles

    Sisters doing it for themselves

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    Suzy tiling with rosa tiles

    Suzy tiling with rosa tiles

    To celebrate International Women’s Day, we thought we’d highlight two remarkable women! Suzy Broome is an NHS speech therapist, a mother of four, and does all of her own tiling! Below, she shares some of her advice for those of you (ladies or gents!) tempted to try it for yourselves.

     

    And if that still seems like a bit of a scary prospect, we’ve also spoken to Rosie of Rose & Black in Bristol, painter-decorator, tiler and wet room installer extraordinaire! Rosie will work closely with clients across the Portishead, Clevedon and Bristol area to create bespoke spaces. She can create beautiful wet rooms to the specifications of individual access needs and loves working with clients to create spaces with optimal mental health in mind. Rosie is also extremely well-connected with other local contractors, including carpenters and plumbers, so can assist you in organising a complex job and take some of the logistical stress off your hands! Oh, and she also does furniture restoration. So if you want to renovate your home, why not support a women-owned small business in the process?

     

    Find Rosie on Instagram at @rose.and.black.bristol or her website https://www.roseandblack.co.uk

    and Suzy Broome on instagram @suzybroome

    Sisters doing it for themselves

    Rosie at Rose and Black

    Suzy Broome: Tips from a self-taught tiler 

     

    What got you on to doing your own tiling? 

    My background is in art and design, so my home has always felt like an extension of my interest in making and self-expression. Even when I was as young as ten, I remember painting a wall in cow print (much to my parents’ horror). When my now husband and I moved into our first rented house together I laid a new lino in the kitchen and wallpapered a feature wall to create a more personal space for us (much to our landlord’s delight). We are very lucky to now own our own home with our four children. Creating a bright, visually interesting and blooming gorgeous space for us all to share together is incredibly important to me because I believe it helps to encourage creativity. And tiles are just such a good way of injecting some real character, pattern and colour into your home.

     

    Did someone teach you? 

    Ultimately, the reason I started tiling myself and completing other DIY tasks was down to budget (or lack of it). Because I’m a visual learner, tiling just felt like a process that made sense to me! I’ve always said, if you can do a puzzle, then you can tile.

    A lot of DIY comes down to confidence: the confidence to have a go yourself and also the confidence to get it wrong! I’ve just learnt as I’ve gone and not been precious about making mistakes. I started by tiling a simple bath backsplash in our previous home. Then I tiled a large open fireplace, a kitchen, a herringbone parquet floor and a couple of bathrooms! I actually really enjoy tiling. It’s like anything creative, you can just lose yourself in the process and it can feel quite therapeutic.

     

    Do you have any tips for doing your own tiling?

    I always start tiling by laying the tiles out in the space and deciding where they look best. You generally always have to cut a tile, so deciding where the cut goes is your first step and how you want the pattern to look. For cuts, I tend to make a paper tile template (the same size as the tile of course) and then I use this to measure any smaller or awkward spaces that need tiling into. Then I use a marker pen to draw the template onto the tile ready to be cut. Another tip that I do when tiling, is using left over cardboard packaging to cut out little square spacers! These go in between the tiles to keep them equally spaced and to stop them from slipping or moving. In fact, getting the kids to cut them out is an activity that keeps them occupied for a good while too and is environmentally sound as it means you don’t need to buy the little plastic spacers. Of course the cardboard needs to be roughly the same thickness otherwise you’ll have different gaps between your tiles! I always have a mini level to hand too and sometimes draw pencil lines onto the wall to keep me from going too wonky.

     

    Any tips for working with handmade tiles in particular?

    One of the things I love about using handmade tiles is that they’re all unique. Each one can be a slightly different shape or size to the last. They’re also very tactile to work with. As such you can feel the creative process and skill that has gone into making them. When I tile with handmade tiles I worry a little less about being completely precise with a level or spacers. Instead I lay them, then step back and look at the wall as a whole, then tweak slightly if needed. Handmade tiles really do provide character because there is so much variation. You’re not just looking at square upon square of exact copies, you’re looking at unique, individual squares.

     

    As a woman I feel really passionate about urging other women to pick up a tile or a tool and just have a blooming go. If you don’t have access to tools then put a call out locally to borrow what you need, or hire what you need. If budget allows then go out and invest in a few simple tools that will help you to get started. Put that shelf up, lay the floor, tile the wall. None of it is as hard as you would expect it to be and you’ll surprise yourself at what you can achieve if you just have a go! There’s a wealth of YouTube videos and books out there to take you through every DIY task imaginable! So just give it a go, you’ll save yourself a lot of money and you’ll feel immense pride at what you’ve achieved.

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    Beatriz tiles installed by Suzy Broome

    Beatriz tiles installed by Suzy Broome

    Rosie of Rose and Black

     

    I started my business 11 years ago when I moved to Bristol, because I needed a job and I’d already previously been to college in Yorkshire where I studied art and design and did some painting and decorating. The two together made for a dream team!

     

    After decorating for a few years, I decided to learn how to tile by taking a course at UK Pro Tiling. On the course I found out that I could attend a Schlüter Wet Room course after, so I signed up! [as a consequence, Rosie has both Schlüter and UK Pro Tiling accreditation]

     

    My favourite aspect of tiling is polishing the tiles when I’ve finished and seeing the results. My top tip for working with handmade tiles is to check their width and size against one another. They can vary, so use levelling spaces to help even things out! Planning your layout is key.

     

    Ceramic or porcelain tiles are best for splashbacks. Gloss finish is an easy wipe option and water resistant, so perfect for the kitchen! At the moment I’m seeing mostly large metro tiles in a herringbone layout for walls, which looks amazing. I love the tiles with decorative motifs and I love the story behind them: knowing where and how they are made, and who made them. Artisan is always my favourite. Having handmade accents in your home is so important – it’s a human touch and makes me smile when I see them.

     

    This year, I have a lot to feel excited and positive about, because I will soon be moving house! I’m really looking forward to creating my own wet room, but my theme for our new home more broadly is to design it for our mental health and happiness. I’m sure I will find the space to add some decorative tiles to a small space like a tabletop or a little cosy reading corner somewhere!

    Sisters doing it for themselves

    Sisters doing it for themselves

  • Studio Rael San Fratello

    A More Perfect Union

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    Studio Rael San Fratello

    Somewhat belatedly, Milagros wishes to say wish Adios to Trump! Of course there is much left yet to be done, but we are moved and inspired by the words of Amanda Gorman, poet of the Biden inauguration:

     

    “We are striving to forge our union with purpose.

    To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man.

    And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us”

    But one thing is certain:

    If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change, our children’s birthright.”

     

    Maintaining community is a collective labour of love. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, we want to recognise all forms of love and all those who labour for a more perfect union, and a world where our “Anti-Trump device” niche becomes out of date.

    Amanda Gorman

    Amanda Gorman

     

    No matter how you’re marking the occasion on the 14th, you can’t go far wrong with chocolate, so below we’ve added some information on our Mexican hot chocolate.

     

    Chocolate is the earliest stimulant drink brought to Europe, predating both coffee and tea. And archaeological finds indicate it has been consumed in South America for millennia: traces of cocoa beans have been found on pottery shards in Honduras which date consumption of the plant at least as far back as 1400BC.

     

    Of course, it would not have been the chocolate we know and love today, but a bitter drink made from the beans of the cacao plant. Sugar was not added, nor was the plant matter turned into a solid sweet, for centuries, and even then only when the Europeans got hooked.

     

    Our chocolate is made in the city of Oaxaca, by manufacturers La Soledad, who have been in operation for over sixty years. A few businesses in the city started quite basic processing about a century ago, and to this day their facilities are quite minimal: they mill the beans in quite small mills, then add spices and sugar. The raw beans get poured in at the top, and then a gummy chocolate mess comes out the other end, which is then pressed into bars and wrapped in foil.

     

    Tom first started bringing it over in small amounts for his own conception about twenty years ago, but in recent years, the hot chocolate stall at the back of the shop on a Sunday has been his daughter’s venture. To sustain it, Tom now imports around 200kg of chocolate every year, and we’re now pleased to offer it for order on our website.

     

    To make your own hot chocolate at home, you can add chilli flakes for some spice, or heap it with whipped cream. We recommend frothing it with what we in the shop refer to by the highly technical term of a “twizzling device”, but is more properly known as a molenillo. Made of wood, you roll it between your hands at speed. If you don’t have a molenillo, you can use a whisk.

     

    That’s it from us – buena salud, as ever, and we hope you are getting through this last of the dark winter months.

    Hasta la vista,

    Milagros

    An installation by architecture studio Rael San Fratello, which connected children in the US and Mexico via a trio of seesaws slotted into the countries' border wall, has been crowned the Design of the Year.

    An installation by architecture studio Rael San Fratello, which connected children in the US and Mexico via a trio of seesaws slotted into the countries’ border wall, has been crowned the Design of the Year.

  • Angel by Maria Jimenez

    Wisdom from Howard Zinn

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    Angel by Maria Jimenez

    A belated Happy New Year to you all! We hope you have enjoyed restful and relaxing festive periods and that the new decade has wonderful things in store.

    2019 was an important year for us. We marked thirty years since Tom’s first trip to Mexico and the inception of the Milagros adventure. In January of that year, our collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum came to an end, for their exhibition Friday Kahlo: Making Her Self Up (we helped supply the exhibition giftshop; you might recognise some of our tinwork).

    We continued to sell our range of Philippe Starck-designed baskets, commissioned for Mama Shelter hotels, and welcomed the newest Mama Shelter (on Hackney Road) to the neighbourhood. We also collaborated with Kew Gardens, providing them with recycled glassware for their Dave Chihuly exhibition.

    In the autumn, we celebrated Shoreditch Design Triangle by showcasing the work of La Muerte Tiene Permiso, a modern design studio based in Mexico and Europe, and we welcomed them with a pop-up mezcaleria organised in partnership with the delectable Sin Gusano. Later months brought the cold, and of course, The Day of the Dead, which we marked with the help of our neighbours and friends on Columbia Rd and Ezra Street. When the time came to try and best each other on our Christmas windows, we handed ours over to the mother-daughter duo of Chulita Design so they could make a winter wonderland of Harlequin taxidermy, dotted about with the odd alebrije. Then we rounded everything off with the most well-attended run of Christmas Wednesdays we’ve ever had in our twelve years on Columbia Road. Thank you for coming to fill the street with your song and good cheer, and thank for always for stopping by to say hello.

    Our hopes for this year are to increase the number of collaborations we have between Mexican and UK artists, especially ceramicists, with a particular focus on our glassware, tiles, and baskets. So if you have any tips for who you’d like to see us working with, please send them our way! We’re also pleased to say we can now offer custom tinwork.

    We leave you with all our best wishes for the coming year, and these words of wisdom from Howard Zinn:

    “To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasise in this complex history will determine our lives… The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvellous victory.”

  • Red heart with doves - Mexican handmade tin decorations

    August 2020 – Tin makers

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    Tin decorations hand made in mexico.

    Tinwork is one of the most popular products we sell at Milagros, and it comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Now, in the times of coronavirus, many of our tin workshops have been forced to close, with no government support. Bulk orders like our own have really helped them to stay afloat in these times, and we all really appreciate each and every one of your purchases. Our aim has always been to support small businesses in Mexico, but at no other time in our thirty years of work has that mission felt more pressing. So thank you all so much! Plus, because tin is light and most of our tinwork is flat, it’s perfectly suited to being shipped and online orders

    Horizontal nido mirror hand made in Mexico

    Tinwork has a proud history in Mexico. In the 1930s, it formed a big part of the craze for Mexicanidad, which we’ve mentioned before in previous newsletters. Tinwork inspired by folk art became a collector’s item, and was avidly sought out by intellectuals and artists alike. It became the preserve of artisans wanting to make more affordable versions of silver or other expensive items, and this is the case with our larger tin mirrors, which copy colonial-era Spanish designs, but in the lighter, cheerier material of tin (this is the case with our El Nido mirrors, which feature two birds in a nest at the top of the frame: a good gift for lovebirds making a home together!).

    Most Mexican tinwork is now made in the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Jalisco and Oaxaca in small family-run workshops. We currently buy and commission work from  such workshops in the states of Guanajuato and Oaxaca. This tinwork is initially cut out of flat tin sheets with tin snips, using tin templates as a guide, and then shaped and  adorned by hammering with a range of shaped punches. They are then painted by hand.

    tin hearts from Mexico

    The bulk of our tinwork is made in the workshop of Arturo Sosa Mendoza, who has been working with tin for over 50 years, in the city of Oaxaca. His career began when he was still a schoolboy: after school he went to art school and learnt to draw. He is adept at coming up with new designs and adapting existing ones; many of his designs have been widely copied by other tin workers in Oaxaca.

     

    Our unpainted tin hearts are from the workshop of Miguel Angel Aguero Pacheco, also in the city of Oaxaca, with whom Milagros has worked for over 25 years. The ornate tin mirrors are from the workshop of Tomas Ricardo Santiago Pacheco, whose family have become famous for working in this complex decorative (and very Oaxacan) style.

    Red heart with doves - Mexican handmade tin decorations

    The nido (nest), fan, and knot mirrors are all made in the workshop of the Trejo family in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. The father of the family (now deceased) began as a silversmith in the 1940s and gradually started making more work in tin. Two of his sons have continued his work.

    And with that, adios and hasta luego!

    Buena salud,

    Milagros

  • Armadillo wood creature

    July 2020 Wood Carvers

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    Wooden figures form a less prominent part of what we sell at Milagros, but they embody one of our core beliefs, which is that craft can help to sustain communities and keep them together. One of our most core values at Milagros is to try and support people to stay in their  communities so that they don’t have to succumb to the pressures to separate their families by moving to cities and possibly even migrating – sometimes under dangerous circumstances.

    Jueventino Melchor Mexican wood carving

    The wooden figures that we sell in the shop are mostly sourced from one village outside the city of Oaxaca, Mexico,  San Martin Tilcajete. It is a small settlement, with a population of about two thousand people, but they’ve been a hive of wood-carving activity for decades.

    The late Ventura Fabien

    Interestingly enough, wood-carving is new craft tradition, which first emerged in its current form in the Oaxaca of the 1970s, when an increase in tourism and cruises from the United States brought foreign buyers in search of souvenirs. Mexico has a long and laudable tradition of supporting and championing its craft traditions. This has roots in the post-revolutionary push for “Mexicanidad” in the 1930s: the quest to develop a post-imperial, independent Mexican identity. As part of that tradition, each state has its own Casa de Artisanias (a gallery showcasing the work of local artisans and the area’s specialties), and there is a national association, Fonart (Fondo Nacional para el Fomento de las Artesanías ) dedicated to promoting and protecting craft traditions all over Mexico.

    Historically, San Martin is a community of  subsistence farmers who own small plots of land, tending goats and cows and growing maize. Wood-carving was largely a pastime activity, done to while away the hours when tending grazing livestock, or used in the production of ceremonial masks. More recently, it has become  an activity which has enabled families to earn an income on the side of farming. Today, this remains by and large the case, but with tangible effects: such is the popularity of wood-carving that the villagers are able to build new and better houses, and paved roads!  Families in San Martin have intermarried and often collaborate, sometimes sharing gallery spaces (sheds on the road into town, to pick up tourist custom off the highway), and ideas for designs get shared between generations and in-laws.

    Interestingly enough, wood-carving is new craft tradition, which first emerged in its current form in the Oaxaca of the 1970s, when an increase in tourism and cruises from the United States brought foreign buyers in search of souvenirs. Mexico has a long and laudable tradition of supporting and championing its craft traditions. This has roots in the post-revolutionary push for “Mexicanidad” in the 1930s: the quest to develop a post-imperial, independent Mexican identity. As part of that tradition, each state has its own Casa de Artisanias (a gallery showcasing the work of local artisans and the area’s specialties), and there is a national association, Fonart (Fondo Nacional para el Fomento de las Artesanías ) dedicated to promoting and protecting craft traditions all over Mexico.

    Historically, San Martin is a community of  subsistence farmers who own small plots of land, tending goats and cows and growing maize. Wood-carving was largely a pastime activity, done to while away the hours when tending grazing livestock, or used in the production of ceremonial masks. More recently, it has become  an activity which has enabled families to earn an income on the side of farming. Today, this remains by and large the case, but with tangible effects: such is the popularity of wood-carving that the villagers are able to build new and better houses, and paved roads!  Families in San Martin have intermarried and often collaborate, sometimes sharing gallery spaces (sheds on the road into town, to pick up tourist custom off the highway), and ideas for designs get shared between generations and in-laws.

    Margarita Sosa Mexican wood carver

    As with all things, the aesthetics of the woodcarvings go in trends, and Tom has now been working with the artisans long enough to spot when a design has made its way back around from thirty years ago, most likely seen in a family album from a parent or grandparent. The villagers’ lives and schedules are still governed by the land, with them scheduling their  wood-carving around the growing season. One famous decorator of woodcarvings, Maria Jimenez, stops production entirely to tend to her maize crop, and makes famous tamales from her maize every Sunday.

    Inspiration for the wooden figures themselves comes from many sources, including folk and fairy tales from all over the world,  and Tom prefers the designs which depart from familiar animals and add a whimsical twist, which is where you might see some animal musicians made by Juventino Melchior, the dancing chickens by the late Ventura Fabian, or a cat-owl by the Xuana family. Tom tends to look for pieces that are beautiful examples of craftsmanship without being overwrought, still possessing, in his words, ‘spirit’. All the pieces that we sell are signed by the person who made them.

    “Alebrije” is a catch-all term applied to these fantastical pieces, but it actually originates in Mexico City, with papier-mâché figures made by Pedro Linares, who once had a childhood fever so extreme, he hallucinated all kinds of fantastical creatures, and these fevered dreams provided him with enough inspiration to for a lifetime of work.  Tom’s taste is not for the most outlandish multiheaded-headed extravaganzas that the term “alebrije” tends to denote, however, nor for the products of the more industrial workshop set-ups in Oaxaca. Instead, he has built up his base of artisans in this slightly remote village, making multiple trips over decades, gradually getting to know many of the more talented families of wood carvers. It is only in the last decade or so that he has really been accepted as a serious buyer of this work. He buys from individuals or families working in their homes, where the men typically do the carving and the women the painting, and has had the good fortune of working over time with multiple generations of some families.

     

    Muchos gracias, as ever, and buena salud,

    Milagros

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