Mexico :: Pottery

One of the favorite things my daughters and I like to do is paint. We will paint pretty much anything. So what's one of the activities while on vacation? Why paint pottery, poolside of course.

We hung out with Luis (pictured right) who would patiently wait for people to finish their painted pieces. There were distracted parents who dropped their kids off, spoiled rambunctious young kids, bored teenagers, and a few helicopter moms who would finish their kid's pottery for them. You see it all when you travel. 

Honestly, it really didn't matter much if you could paint .... Luis would 'fix' it. I saw several pieces that the paint was just globbed on, and he'd change up the colors, put in black lines around the images and add in accents. Basically you'd come back to pick up your piece and you'd be stunned by how amazing your Luis' work was!

The pieces you see here were painted by us Luis. I did the two dishes with lids, and Kate did the bowl with the waves. Anne did a series of flowered candle holders, which we discovered later are simply for decoration since the finishing coat burns and turns black when you try to really use them. Opps! Good thing we were standing right there and blew the candle out in a hurry!

I did some online research to see if I could identify what style of pottery this represents. What I believe is that this is influenced by Talavera style which uses bright colors, thick graphics and dominant boarders around the patterns. Talavera was introduced to Mexico by Spanish guild artisans during the Colonial period (1650-1810). In Spain, the style is call 'Majolica.' What makes this method different from others is that the base pottery is already fired clay which is covered with an opaque glaze base. Then the pottery is covered with an opaque glaze and decorated with metallic oxide glaze colors, which are fired together. This blends the colors that overlap and form other colors. The result is brightly colored, glossy surface that maintains and enhances the lines and colors. While our pieces did not follow this process exactly, you can definitely see the influences of the style.