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Hands Around the World |
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Specializing in Hand Made Treasures from Around the World
San Bartolo Coyotepec Village
San Bartolo Coyotepec is a small Mexican village that has been producing pottery shaped without a wheel for 2000 years. The Zapotec Indians had perfected the art of pots with a sheen like surface made from the iron-rich regional clay. Part of the craftsmanship was lost for several centuries and the local natives produced beautifully hand worked pieces but of a dull buff color. Then one day Dona Rosa Valente Nieto Real rediscovered the secret of her Zapotec ancestors by smoking and then polishing the pots with an agate rock until they shone with a beautiful metallic sheen. The descendents of this ancient tribe make their living today in the tiny village of San Bartolo Coyotepec producing the beautiful shiny black pottery, still formed without a wheel and smoked in wood fired kilns dug into the earth.
