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Capula Pottery: A Closer Look

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Capula Pottery: A Closer Look

Artisans in Capula sell thousands of quickly produced pieces like the ones in these photos every week (cazuelas, bean pots, plates and bowls) because it’s traditional and VERY inexpensive. What a lot of people don’t realize is that there are artisans in Capula who create similar pottery for cooking and serving food, pero es otra cosa--it's a whole other thing. Their work is definitely not ordinary, and “charming” doesn’t even begin to describe it.

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Mexico By Hand and the Diego Rivera exhibit at SFMOMA!

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Mexico By Hand and the Diego Rivera exhibit at SFMOMA!

It was a challenging project to bring artesánia from Michoacán to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for the Diego Rivera exhibit, but Mexico By Hand  is thrilled and honored to play a part of this wonderful show. Here's how it happened...

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Returning to Zipiajo!

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Returning to Zipiajo!

We met Elvia Silva Bartolo in 2004 while Doug and I were shooting our documentary. She’s in Zipiajo, a Purepecha village way off the beaten track where a few artisans make unpainted terracotta clay pots and gorgeous embroidered blouses.We didn’t know about the embroidery at the time, and until we were in Elvia’s workshop we had no idea that she had an incredible talent for sculpting clay animal figures. We bought a few small ones that day, and later purchased some that won prizes in Michoacán state fairs. She has a piece in the prestigious Museo del Arte Popular in...

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Beautiful pottery—but is it food-safe?

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Beautiful pottery—but is it food-safe?

Mexico By Hand is committed to working with potters in Mexico who use sustainable methods for producing food safe pottery. We buy lead-free pottery from the artisans because it is important to us to protect the health of the artisans, their families, and you-- the consumer.

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