GUADALAJARA
Our workshops in Guadalajara utilize a combination of locally sourced materials from the verdant soil and rock of the region. Traditional staples, such as iron and copper, are set against the eccentric grain of the roving live oak and the twisted fibers of wild tule rush. Exotic gypsum crystals aligned in radiating array are supported by hand forged and gilt structures. Clay is pulled from the earth and coaxed into flowing sinuous vessels. The region, know as the pearl of the west, is among the most diverse in culture and craftsmanship.
Beauty at times comes from an act of insanity. In this case, a scene seemingly plucked from a Borges or rather a Márquez novel. What started in the morning with a stick of dynamite and a farmers determination to level a small hill encroaching his raspberry field and would quickly and violently become a new and most beloved material in our repertoire. When flame was put to wick -buried deep in the earth covering of the loma- what erupted were sizable chunks of Selenite-Gypsum Crystal. Not knowing what to do with the unusual but all-the-same-inconvenient rock Félix, our neighbor, sent some chunks with his son to our stone workshop overlooking Lake Chapala. Once cleaved and joined in a radial pattern we found the gypese marquetry to rival that of the finest examples in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. The harvest will be, for the time being, a very different one for Félix and his son.
Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood.
