Ignacio Punzo, master of hammered Copper and Silver

Hello again!, this time I would like to write you about Ignacio Punzo Angel, the best artisian from Santa Clara del Cobre Michoacan in Mexico. The town is part of the Pátzcuaro region of Michoacán, and ethnically dominated by the Purepecha people. These people have been working with copper since the pre-Hispanic era, and led to this town’s dominance in copper crafts over the colonial period (1519–1821) until well into the 19th century.
Most of the town's population (82%) its employed on making copper crafts, there are 250 registered workshops but only 2 of them have been inducted in to the "Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art" collection by Fomento Cultural Banamex, one of them its the one own by Ignacio Punzo Angel and his sons.
Ignacio's studio its maybe the only one in Santa Clara del Cobre that also has pieces of Silver. This its because thanks to his level of craftsmanship he has developed a base of collectors and Museums that are able to afford such beautiful items just like the ones in the photos. If you would like to see the items that we have in stock by him please make sure to visit our online Gallery Los Naguales.

The new era of Patric Jars (Tiburcio Soteno)

Hi again!
As many of you may all ready know this 2010 in Mexico we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution and 200 years of the Independence from Spain!. Well over the year I will be writing about Mexican Folk art that Celebrates the Bicentennial and Centennial.
This time the subject for this post will be the "Patriotic Jars" many of them where made in the early 1900s as part of the celebration of the 100th years of the Mexican Independence. This first photo shows an example.

Many of this antique jars where made in Metepec in the State of Mexico, one hour away from Mexico City. Unfortunately now in modern days its impossible to find some one in Metepec that could make similar items, well that was until thanks to the idea of good friend, collector and customer Michael Ricker we commissioned Great Master of Mexican Folk Art Tiburcio Soteno to start making testes in order to recreate this old jars with great decoration. The result was a very impressive piece of folk art with a great composition and a great amount of work, much more sophisticated compared to the old ones.
The subject of this Patriotic Jar that Tiburcio Soteno made was the "Decena Tragica" a passage of Mexican the Mexican Revolution when in October of 1911 president Madero was betrayal by Victoriano Huerta and the American Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, so the jar shows Huerta and Lane, below its the "Palacio Nacional" being fired by cannons, the people below represent the civil people that where killed as part of the battle.
If you want more information of Tiburcio please check my older post about his Trees of life, or write me to mexfolkarts@yahoo.com.mx, we can commission him special order items. Enjoy!!

Angel Santos: Perfection on Tonala Ceramics

There are 2 artists from Tonala that I like the most, one its Salvador Vazquez, and the other one its Angel Santos, both of them Masters, but very different in style. While Salvador follows a more "naive" and traditional line of decoration, Angel Santos looks for perfection, perfection in its burnished finish and perfection in his very sophisticated decoration, specially in his miniatures.
Angel was born in Zacatecas (as many great Mexican Artists), but moved to Jalisco at a very early age. At age 7 he started his relationship with clay, he was a helper at the Mario Silva studio, folk art its about tradition from one generation to the other the earlier you begin the better, that's what happened to Angel, he felt in love with the craft at a very early age.
While still a teenager Angel Santos opened his own studio, in those days it was difficult to convince folk art store owners that he was the artisan that made those well made ceramics, but with time and hard work he made a name of his own, specially because he was able to do his own designs with new never seen before ideas for his Ceramics.
His quest for perfection brought him to search for professional studies, so he went to school at the Universidad de Guadalajara where he made 2 mayors one in Graphic Design and the other one on Sculpture, this its something very rare to see in a folk art artist because usually they only learn the craft from family tradition.
Besides his skills for the craft, Angel also its a leader in his community, some years ago he formed the non profit organization "Herencia Milenaria" which its a group of Tonala Artisians that joined forces in order to be able to exhibit there ceramics as a collective group outside Mexico. In 2006 his group received from Mexican President Fox the National Award on science and Arts in the folk art category in recognition for work to promote Mexican Ceramics.
If you would like more information on this artist or just to get in touch please write us to mexfolkarts@yahoo.com.mx or check our item by the Tonala Great Masters please click this link: www.losnaguales.com.

Guadalupe Hermosillo: Master of old style Ironsmith

Since the XVII Century old buildings in the Colonial city of San Cristobal de las Casas Chiapas have been decorated with big iron crosses on top of there roofs. Usually those crosses have several figures like a ruster, a hearth, a leader, a snake, a balance and so on, each one of them has a meaning and all they represent the passion of Christ (Hearth=Sacred hearth of Christ, rooster=Peters denial, snake=temptation, balance=justice, the leader to bring down Jesus from the Cross, the lance that the Roman soldier used, etc).
My first approach to one of these crosses (before visiting San Cristobal) was 3 years ago at the new National Museum of Mexican Folk Art in Mexico City know as MAP (Museo de Arte Popular), behind glass there lies a huge cross with all those symbols made by Great Master of Mexican Folk Art Guadalupe Hermosillo. 2 years ago I was lucky enougth to meet him in person at his studio in San Cristobal de las Casas. He its a great person, very humble men who likes to work hard and to do things as perfect as possible, for example: his new crosses are much more sophisticated compared to the one at the book Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art (now each bar of iron its actually made of 2 twisted bars that look like one, making double work just to give the optical illusion of one bar), another example its that he likes to keep working the same way as in the old days, each and every joint are made with rivets, my guess its that 99.99% of modern ironsmiths only know how to make soldered joints instead of using rivets.
He its also very reliable of special orders, one time he made for me a custom cross just to hold in front of it a wood cross with a straw mosaic by Guillermo Olay, he ended up making an amazing job!!. I hope to post a photo of it some day. See you on the next post!.
Please write us to let us know your favorite subjects on Mexican Folk Art in order for us to write about it in our blog, our email its mexfolkarts@yahoo.com.mx if you would like to see our items for sale by the Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art just click on the next link: www.losnaguales.com thanks!!

Mexico's National Award of Ceramics 2009

Since the late 1970s the "Premio Nacional de Ceramica" was established to help promote the craftsmanship of Mexican artisans and to bring there work at collectors level, each year the number of the pieces and there quality has been growing and growing!, this year 5200 pieces where summit!!.
I'm very happy to let you know that this year 3 of my friends that I work with have won this great contest. They are: Angel Santos, Juan Hernandez and Juan Carlos de la Cruz.
Angel Santos, won the "Angel Carranza Award" in recognition to his long trajectory as a great master in the field of burnished ceramics from Tonala, just a couple of years ago he and his group of artisans "Herencia Milenaria", won the National Award of Science and Arts in the folk Art category. The work of Angel can be found in several books of Mexican Folk Art, between them Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art and Arte Del Pueblo, Manos De Dios/Art of the People, Hands of God ( the catalog of the National Museum of Mexican Folk Art). Angel its very famous for his miniatures where in just a few inches he can show a Mexican fiesta!.
Juan Hernandez from Metepec its also very famous for miniatures but his are miniature trees of life just 4 inches tall. One example its a day of the dead tree of life that we have at hour gallery, its 3.2 inches tall and it has 50 day of the dead musicians!!! each one with its own musical instrument!!!. (see photo) His work can be found in the miniatures section of the book "Crafts of the people hands of God", several museums have his work including the National Museum of Folk Art in Mexico City know as MAP.
Juan Carlos de la Cruz, wow!, what to write about him??!! I'm always speechless every time I see one of his day of the dead miniatures. Since a young kid he has been working the clay, he learned the craft from his dad also famous artisan Alvaro de la Cruz in Capula Mexico. Specially I love his day of the dead crowned nuns and his Galleros (see photo).
Usually we carry the work of this 3 masters under special order, any way, please check our online store www.losnaguales.com or send us an email to mexfolkarts@yahoo.com.mx Enjoy!!!.

Felipe Linares Papier Mache Skelleton Enramada

Hello Friends! this time I would like to write about one of my favorites pieces of Mexican Folk Art, its called "Enramada" (Branch men) and its made in Papier Mache by Great Master of Mexican Folk Art Felipe Linares (born in 1934). Its average size is 59” tall, every Enramada he makes its a different piece of art so each one has different animals, flowers and plants. The Linares family its the most famous Mexican family on the art of Paper Mache, late Pedro Linares (father of Felipe) invented the fantastical creatures called “Alebrijes” (he also invented that word).
The work of Felipe Linares can be found in the National Museum of Mexican Folk Art (Museo de Arte Popular) in Mexico City, the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, the Fowler Museum in UCLA, the Museum of Men in London between others. Also some of the most important collectors of Mexican Folk Art have this piece among there most valuable objects, like Amy Franz who by the way has the most impressive Linares collection I have seen.
Also the work of Felipe Linares can be found in several books of Mexican Folk art, his work made the cover for the new book of the Mexican Goverment Agency for traditional crafts "Arte Popular de Mexico" (see photo), other books are. En Calavera: The Papier-Mache Art of the Linares Family
, “Crafts of the people, hands of God”, and Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art.. The book The Skeleton at the Feast: The Day of the Dead in Mexico has in its a pages a photo of one of Felipes Enramadas.
Each Enramada he makes takes aprox 6 months to be made, please consider that this its a piece of art and that the master was born in 1934, any way its wait is worth doing!.
If you would like to receive more photos of other Enramadas that I have sold please get in touch!! (mexfolkarts@yahoo.com.mx). To see all the items that we have for sale by the Linares family please click here

Straw and Feathered Mosaics by Guillermo Olay

Mosaic made with FEATHERS! Made by Great Master of Mexican Folk Art: Guillermo Olay Barrientos. In Aztec period and colonial period mosaic feathers where a well refined art in Mexico, that got lost from the 17th Century till mid 20th Century. Guillermo's Dad Gabriel Olay (who passed 2 years ago) its responsable for the rescue of the techinques of this art. His work can be seen at several museums. The example of the photo its a piece
that can be found at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. For several decades (and generations) the art of the Olay family has been collected in the States but in the form of Straw Mosaics, examples of early Olay family straw mosaics can be found in the book Popular Arts of Mexico, 1850-1950
(actually that book has a complete chapter on straw mosaics and it includes a family tree of the Olays starting in the early 1800s).
Getting back to Guillermo Olay, a favorite subject of him its Diego Rivera, he makes reproductions of his work both on Feathers (above image) and Straw like this example that is a reproduction of one of Diegos Murals!!.
Another very impressive example of Guillermos Work its his collection of straw mosaics inside wood crosses, he has about 10 different ones, each one a master piece, here it is an example.
If you would like to know more about master Guillermo Olay please send us a mail to mexfolkarts@yahoo.com.mx, if you want to see what we have in our Gallery of him just visit our online store Click Here .
See you next time!
Benito Del Aguila