Coming soon to a Ten Thousand Villages store near you – artisan burnished clay work from Acatlán.
The fearsome foursome that conquered the roads to Olinalá was back together again today for another road trip; this time, to a small town in southern Puebla, just south of Izucar de Matamoros. When we fell out of the car last night after twelve plus hours together in the compact car, I was afraid to ask Inez about today’s travel itinerary. Thankfully we would not leave until 8am and our projected car time was four hours round trip, which would still allow us plenty of time to travel to Taxco in the evening, or at least that was the hope.
The three hour drive was beautiful, through high mountain desert spotted with tall, pole saguaro cacti; a panorama that reminded us of the environs of Phoenix. When we drove in to Acatlán, we stopped for a light lunch, and after several wrong turns found ourselves at the home of José, an award winning artist in burnished clay.
José has worked with clay for 38 years, following in the footsteps of his mother, who at 81 is still working. He says that he taught himself by trial and error, shaping the clay into hollow shapes of animals such as deer, peasants and birds. His process is labor intensive as he first creates the hollow base, followed by the hollow, circular frame that gives the tree of life its shape. It is time consuming as he has to wait for each piece to dry a bit before adding it to the height so that the weight of the clay does not destroy the piece.
Jose’s clay pieces are earth toned with natural colors of black, dark and light brown and red. He emphasized that his work is all natural and was willing to explain the process of how he tints the clay, except for the red. With a twinkle in his eye and his New York Yankees hat askew, he chuckled and said “it’s the secret ingredient.”
After the piece has dried for two days in the shade, the next step is to burnish the clay with charcoal to bring out the color of the clay which is the last step before it is wood fired in the yellow brick kiln that he has by his house. José was proud of his work and showed us many pictures of his various designs that he draws from his imagination.
My translation skills sometimes faltered as I searched for several more technical words to describe his, as he emphasized time-consuming, all natural and made-by-hand, process. His teenage grandson was quick to help me out and show off is English skills that he learned while living in the Bronx and working in an Italian restaurant.
Having captured the story, process and technique, along with the pictures to accompany the burnished clay tree of life that will be in Ten Thousand Villages stores by fall, we were on the road again for Cuernavaca. We passed the saguaros and maguey (agave plants from which they make mescal) plants, the landscape shifting from the mountainous deserts of Puebla to the bustling city of Cuernavaca.
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