Kalaya Steede

Bonjour!  Lately I have been thinking about making a belt buckle for myself.   I do not know why.  It is not like I wear my shirts tucked in or anything!  But it would be nice to have a REALLY cool buckle! So when I saw this fantastic piece by artist Jesse Bert I just HAD to share!   Photo by Jesse Bert   Come on...take a close look!  Check out those pointy ends.  Have you ever seen anything like it?  I mean the boots that is.  I hear it is the trend in northern Mexico and started in Dallas of all places!  The boots are known as botas vaqueras  exóticas .  Apparently these are worn at night clubs and anywhere one wants to make a statement. Oops...I digress...anyway the botas vaqueras exóticas was the inspiration behind the piece shown above.  Also included was this iron grate, as Jesse describes "...wonderful iron grate I found on the ground in a village of the mountains of Oaxaca.  I crea...

We saw many things in Oaxaca but the most exciting thing to me was a bug call ed Cochineal (coach-in-EEL). Just 14 miles south of Oaxaca in the village of San Bartolo de Coyotepec you will find the Cochineal Farm.  The official name of this farm is Centro de Difusion de Conocimiento la Grana Cochineal Tlapanochestli .   A lot of the textiles are dyed with the blood (actually carminic acid not really blood) of the Cochineal.  Including the robes of Cardinals in Europe.  Listen to Señor Vicente telling us about the Cochineal.   Did you get that?  Don't you just LOVE his voice? Basically the bugs have this thing for the Nopal cactus (prickly pear) that is abundant in much of Mexico.  They raise the bugs on this cactus (which looks like fungus), dry them out in the sun to make them muerte (that's dead), and then harvest them.   Grind the dead bugs up for the red pigment. Nopal cactus (pri...

I've been idle for too long but I have lots to share with you! Oh where to begin?   Let me first say that Oaxaca is a place full of beautiful people.  The city was VERY safe and the place we stayed in was absolutely wonderful.  And the very best thing about it all...the plane ride was only 3.5 hours from New Orleans!  Gotta love that. I don't want to bore you with all the details so I think I will stick to the art side of things.  Oaxaca is known for their textiles but I didn't take any pictures of any textiles.  :(  Lo siento. There was this place that we stumbled upon called La Mano Magica  #26 Macedonio Alcala 203, Centro .  This place had a variety of high end pieces for the taking and a price.  Off to the side we noticed a show going on and I immediately knew the work.  It was the work of ceramicist Alfonso Castillo.  One of the the great folk artist of Mexico.   Eeeee!!! How ...