pups 8 Mexico, cont. from pe. | Tuesday: the resident studio potter, a Mexican man, gives us a technical demonstration, focusing on the methods that are used locally. Moulds feature praminencly, as most local potters produce tiles and highly coloured decorative ware. Denys takes us through slab and cool, later we hollow our solid forms. When the sun is low, we have a slide show of Denys’s work. Wednesday: We are shown how to mix wet and dry clay together. Surface treatment, with the available glazes and slips are discussed. We play wich textures and slips on slabs, including a group session in the cactus garden where we all work on each others test slabs with slip, cools and found items. Everyone just moves around che table from slab to slab playing with che effece of additive and erosive rechniques. At the end, all the slabs are placed om the ground and joined together into a large sculpture. People drift back in after a hearty lunch and start working on their own projects again. Thursday through Sunday are free studio time and we work on our ports, using the various techniques shown in che last couple of days. Dennis organizes a crip on Sarurday to visit the last remaining peasant potter in che area, as well as a brick works and the neighboring town of Dolores Hidalgs, which is famous for its talavera tile production. Our bus takes us to the home of Don Esteban, a man who could be anywhere from forty to sevency, The use of Don betore his first nanve is a mark of the respect chat his skill commands. He graciously comes out into the cold wind and shows us his studio. [tis tiny, with a ceiling clearance of perhaps aix feet. A small window provides a bit of light. There is no electricity, Broken pots weigh down the tin roof to keep it from blowing away. His work area is a stone slab on the floor, no more than 3’ by 2' in diameter. He uses three hump moulds to provide the form for his bowls. A coil foor is added on. He shows us the tron rich black rock chat he grinds and mixes with water to decorate his bowls. His brush is made from a twig and hair from one of the many dogs chat romp through the yard. He decorates beautifully, mermaids, deer, rabhers, local characters and mythic cfeutures cavort across the interior of his bowls. A quick application of a clear glaze and chey are ready for firing. His kiln is fired with wood, pwigs, ald shoes, or anything that can be burned. The firing box is dug underneath che kiln, into the edge of a small hill, One of the women lifts up the tin sheet thar covers the kiln, which is partially in the ground, and we peer inte the stacked pots ready for firing. They ate balanced on cop of cach in a manner that looks precarious, bur is the result of years of skall and judgment. Several children marerialize, curious about the crowd of gringns whe have invaded their Saturday. The girls bring out charming clay animals they have made and offer them for sale. The boys simply ask us for spare pesos, until our guide, local potter Ricardo, chides them for noc making their own work. He later explains that he hopes that the proof thar money can be made with clay will encourage some of chem to take up Don Esteban’s trade. While we have been touring his studio and yard, stacks of pots have been brought out. We muse look a litcle locust. like as we rush towards them. Everyone happily buys a por and we are back on the bus. We nex stop at the brick yard, impressed by the sheer volume of production. [t is too cold to stay outside for long, so we pile back in the bus and head off for Dolores Hidalgo, a town where every second shop seems to be selling pots. They are bright and exuberant, covered with flowers and animals. They look grear in their Mexican surroundings, but might be a little over-the-top back home! There are a couple of major factories in town and several families subcontract the decorating, taking che bisqueware home to glaze, One interescing mouf that no one is able co explain is that of a naked woman, kneeling before an altar of calla lilies. Perhaps it survives from Astec tines. The priest after whom che cown is named, is one of che fathers of the Mexican independence movement. Two centuries ago he also started the cle factories as an alternative to the subsistence farming chat his parishioners were doomed to, If he had just suck to pottery, he mighe not have had his head chopped off and displayed on the town gates, The cown is also famous for its ice cream and, despite the snow, a few of us are addicted enough to try it out. We all agree that the vanilla, made with real vanilla extrace, is cich enough to be sinful! One of che churches has several domes, all of which are tiled in blue and white. It reminds us that when Spain invaded Mexico, it had only been a couple of centuries since [slam had withdrawn from Spain. The outsides of many buildings are Gled omarely, fabulous advertisements for the town's main production. A group of us are lucky enough to find che ceramic supply store, but are disappointed to discover that it is closed. A friendly passerby tells us to wait while he rounds up the owner. He arrives within LO minutes and we go inte a frenzy of buying. There are stains here whose colours we have not seen before. And chey are about ome quarter of the price back we pay back hore. The last three days of our workshop are spent glazing and firing. We raku, electric fire, build saggars and even do a pat firing. Many of us are still building work, finding a freedom in the notion that we don't have wo worry about finishing it. The process has become all important, rather than the end resulr. Arriving in Mexico Cicy is a bit of a shock after 2 weeks in the cobble-stoned streets of San Miguel. Qur hovel is clean, inexpensive and about 10 minutes away from the main square of Mexico City, As an added bonus, OD. H. Lawrence used to stay there and work on his novels. We make a trip to El Tempo Majo, a recently discovered Aztec temple buried in the heart of the city. Ceramic offerings from all over Mezo America were found there. The location, design and single focus make iton of the most spectacular museums any of us has seen. We go back to Canada filled with the warm, artistic spirit chat we found in Mexico, Most of us are already planning Cur next trip. Kylar Clement and Karen Opas.