Maggie's Mexico Adventure

I had an opportunity to attend a workshop on making traditional Zapotec pottery
at San Marcos - a village in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico in the middle of the Sierra Madres.

Here is a very short overview of my wonderful adventure:

                Our group first met in Oaxaca (pronounced Wa Ha´Ka) City which is a six hour bus ride south of Mexico City.  We spent a couple nights there at the Casa Arnel and had time to do some shopping and other tourist kinds of things before heading to San Marcos - about 45 minutes away by dirt road.  We spent our days at the Mateos household learning Alfreda and Macrina's techniques and spent our nights at a hostel near Santa Ana del Valle - about 20 minutes from San Marcos.

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Courtyard at Casa Arnel in Oaxaca City                         Looking up from courtyard to second floor rooms           Senior Arnel sending help through our bathroom                                                                                                                                                                                 window to unlock our room

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Musicians at the Zocalo (town square) in Oaxaca             We met Juan at the Zocalo and he offered to show us the markets - he's 80 yrs. old.  He gave us a                                                                                      3 hr.whirlwind tour that left us entirely delighted in spite of our sore feet.  (He liked to be in our photos.)

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Pottery at the Oaxaca market                                         More market pottery made in Coyotepec                         Chapulinyo (Deep-fried grasshoppers)

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                    San Marcos                                                                  Digging for clay                                                     Cindy finds a chunk!

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Entryway to the Mateos home in San Marcos                     Courtyard and pottery workshop in back                             Dried clay ready to process

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        Slaking the clay (soaking in water)                                      Straining out the impurities                            Spreading the clay to dry to the right consistency

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  Our hostel at Santa Ana del Valle - bunkhouse                Back view of hostel - dining/kitchen building              Mi professora - Alberta - showing us how it's done

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A stone with a concave indentation, a piece of leather                 A worn down dried corncob for shaping                                                  A pot  and some sand are all that are used for a wheel                   

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        Macrina smoothing a rim                                             Trimming the bottom                                                             Stacking bowls to fire

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        Cow dung added for special effects                                                 Setting the fire                                                                 Cooling down

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        Cooled and ready to pack                                                 One of the bowls I made                                                     Another of my bowls

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Leopoldo Barranda - another potter                                          Leopoldo's work                                          Delores Perez demonstrating her technique we were able to observe in Coyotepec                                                                                                                 Delores lives in Atzumpa

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Dancers by Angelica Vasquez - another demo             Our group: Eight potters, two organizers/transtators     My friend Kerri & I with all our luggage on our way to                                                                                                                                                                  the Mexico City airport in a Volkswagen Beetle

 

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