Day Twenty-One - Ocotlan

“I can feel my money already growing its wings.” That was what I said only an hour after today’s journey started! Today was an optional trip day, but I made good use of it (and so did my wallet).

We started off the morning with a visit to Doña Rosa’s Black Pottery workshop. Doña Rosa was a local villager who discovered a method for adding a lustrous black finish to her pottery back in the 1950s. One day while out in the field she found a piece of quartz (a type of rock) and decided to rub it on her pottery to change its style. As it turns out, she made an amazing find! Although Doña Rosa passed away in the 1980s, her creativity lives on through her children and grandchildren. One of her grandsons gave us a demonstration today of how he creates a clay pot. He doesn’t use a potter’s wheel, but instead creates his own out of two rounded plates, one on top of the other.

I was amazed at how quickly he worked to create a beautiful vase with intricate designs. Cool, also, was that a “pottery cat” found me and sat on my lap throughout the entire demonstration (sure made me miss Ritz though). Once he was done molding the vase, he explained that it would take about three to four weeks for the clay to dry before it could be fired in the oven.  We then took about twenty minutes to "shop" in their store...boy, did I spend lots of $$!!  Here's a glimpse inside...

Our second stop was at the museum and house of Rodolfo Morales, a famous Mexican artist who lived in Octolan from 1925-2001. Morales had a specific focus on modern art and came up with creative ways to showcase his work. For example, instead of just painting on flat canvas and putting it in a frame, Morales had some pieces that were painted on canvas and then wrapped around large poles. Here are a few pictures from his collection:
  

Our final stop of the day was at the house of Josefina Aguilar, one of four sisters who design small clay figurines. The four sisters share ideas and create figures of women, devils, skeletons, and more, painting them in bright colors.

We knocked on her door and were welcomed in to view Josefina’s collection and meet the artist herself. Of course, my wallet opened itself, and I purchased a sculpture of a woman selling skulls, representing el Dia de los Muertos (but not the menorah that Josefina is holding). 

There’s no doubt in my mind, however, about my purchases in Mexico. It’s been a great trip and now I’ll have mementos to last me a lifetime.