They make things easy: they have good selections, and they�ll happily pack up your handblown glasses and carved headboard and ship them to you, or even arrange custom orders. But prices rival those in the United States. For those with a serious love of shopping, and on the lookout for deals � especially on artisanal goods like pottery, ironwork, glass and furniture � it�s worth leaving the calm elegance of Tlaquepaque for the exuberant chaos of nearby Tonal�.
Tonal� is where the professionals shop. I visited with Rebecca Allen, an interior designer based in San Francisco, who has been making regular buying trips to Tonal� for more than a decade. She is part of an ancient tradition: the town, near rich clay seams, has been a center of pottery � and of trade more broadly � for millenniums. It remains one of Mexico�s top artisanal hubs; the streets are lined with shops and ateliers, and a complex at its heart features nothing but earthenware.
On Thursday � market day � the narrow streets are choked with stands selling every imaginable item: SpongeBob pi�atas, plastic flower arrangements, costume jewelry and plaster statues of drunken chimpanzees in sombreros making obscene gestures. The sweet smell of fresh frying masa perfumes the clear air.
�You have to take the time to find the good stuff,� said Ms. Allen, who was on the lookout for canvases depicting Frida Kahlo. �It�s like treasure hunting.� Her practiced eye was constantly roving, checking out the most unlikely stalls, assessing them against the tastes of her clients. At one, piled with rubber furniture feet, she found a stack of natural-bristled handmade pot scrubbers. �These would look great in a big wooden bowl,� she said, and bought them all. With five metal lime squeezers, they came to 195 pesos ($17.97 at 10.85 pesos to the dollar).
There�s a timelessness to Tonal�, but like any vibrant trading center, it reflects larger trends. While a few indigenous artisans from the surrounding mountains still come to sell their work, there has been a flood in recent years of cheap Chinese plastic ware. And globalization has even brought traditional crafts from elsewhere: Guatemalan work has been available here for centuries; now Balinese is as well.
We moved on to Avenida Tonal�, lined with workshops big enough to call themselves factories. Vast yards of pottery, stoneware and ironwork line the road, ready for buyers like Ms. Allen (who also has a store, Relics, in Abilene, Tex.) to order containerloads, or people like me doing a little Christmas shopping.
At El Nuevo Triangulo de Cristal (Avenida Tonal� 2858; 52-33-3681-4342; www.elnuevotriangulodecristal.com), a cinderblock building by the highway, we found the place crammed with handmade glass: the classic Mexican goblets and pitchers, rimmed with color; big orbs of glittery mercury glass; gaudy glass figurines. Ms. Allen went to work while I picked up a glass pitcher with green and blue polka dots (90 pesos) and a trio of mirrored mercury glass vases (170 pesos). I came across a big bin of glass droplets, and stuck in my hand. �I hate to say it,� said Ms. Allen coolly, �but you can get them cheaper at Wal-Mart.�
But they�re not made at Wal-Mart. Right next to the sun-sprayed showroom was the dark, Hephaestian source: a dim space with a glowering, hissing furnace in the center. Artisans rushed to and fro, carrying glowing blobs of molten glass on the ends of long metal tubes. In a hot, sweaty dance whose grace arose from deadly necessity, they worked fast and efficiently: dipping, blowing, rolling, molding, snipping, dousing, baking. �The next time someone at my store complains about a wineglass costing $9,� said Ms. Allen while watching a glass blower, his brow beaded in sweat, �I�m going to show them a picture of this guy.�
Our next stop was Rojo Antig�o (Avenida Tonal� 482-A) and its unnamed sister shop across the street. With open sides and dirt floors strewn with dusty, weathered antiques, the shops resemble 19th-century junkyards.
ROJO ANTIG�O specializes in old wooden doors that Ms. Allen buys and sends to a carpenter to make benches, armoires and tables. Juan Guzm�n Rojo, one of the three brothers who own the shops, combs the Mexican countryside for old ox carts, wagons and other rustic equipment, which he refurbishes and sells to collectors, hotels and restaurants. A century-old wagon goes for 4,300 pesos.
ON our way out, Ms. Allen bought Mr. Guzm�n�s workbench for 700 pesos. He looked stunned. �They think I�m crazy,� she told me, �but this will look great shored up and waxed.�
I bought an antique metal stamp from a Guadalajara card club for 100 pesos. Ms. Allen told me I had overpaid. �She says I overpaid,� I told Mr. Guzm�n. �No, not really,� he said. �It�s a very nice piece. I might have gone down to 80 pesos, but no more.�
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