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Treasures of the Sierra Madre
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Women like Rocio Morales paint the Oaxacan carvings with brushes - or thorns from the mescal cactus. |
Fire-breathing crocodiles and flying giraffes roam folk art museums and shops around the world. They are
alebrijes - hand-carved wooden figures from the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Zapotec and Mixtec Indians have been carving in the region for at least 2,500 years. Today, the best-known carvers work in Arrazola, San Martin Tilcajete, and La Union Trejalapan, villages a few dusty miles from the city of Oaxaca. In the last 30 years, almost 100 of the approx-imately 500 families in Arrazola alone have turned from subsistence farming to take up the craft.
Everyone has a role. Traditionally, the men carve while the women and older children sand and paint. The younger children recruit customers from tourists and collectors.
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| Painting adds fanciful and exotic details to figures like this 12" tall bird. |
Subjects range from native creatures like armadillos, coyotes, and lizards to barnyard animals and birds. Customer requests have added animals never seen in Mexico, like polar bears and giraffes. Imaginary creatures -dragons, mermaids, space aliens, and more - complement the typical carver's repertoire. Many carvers produce both real and fanciful human figures as well.
Pieces range from 2-inch armadillos to 6-foot wooden skeletons. Styles can be elemental and rough or smooth, round, and flowing. Their appeal comes from both the carving and the painting, each accomplished using simple hand tools and finishes. The carver's "tool box" holds a machete, pocket knife, a few kitchen knives, and maybe a gouge or chisel.
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| For carvers such as Gerardo Ramirez Morales, the family workshop is often a shady tree in the backyard. |
Most of the wood comes from the copal tree, which once grew on the hillsides surrounding the villages. The local trees were victims of the carving industry's success, though, and have mostly disappeared. The few remaining trees are protected by environmental regulations and stiff fines are levied against poachers. Now copal is purchased from sellers who harvest it from the nearby Sierra Madre mountains.
Copal resembles basswood in density, grain, and workability. The carver looks for curving, twisted branches to make pieces like spiral-tailed lizards and sinuous cats. Very little of the tree goes unused. The carver adds features using found materials like goat (or human) hair, cactus spines, splinters of wood, and fibers from maguey leaves.
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| Legs, antennae and wings might be glued in, or inserted loose to make packing the carvings easier. |
The figures may be fanciful, but the carving is pretty straight-forward. Once the carver visualizes the shape, he roughs it out with a machete. Final shaping and detailing are done by knife, and the piece is left to dry for a day or so in the sun. Next, the pieces are sanded and a base coat or sealer is applied. Then the painter adds the remarkable patterns that distinguish the genre.