page_title: Handcrafts and folk art in Michoacán
section_title: Other crafts
hierarchical_section_title: Handcrafts and folk art in Michoacán / Other crafts
caption_attribution_description: English: Merchandise on display at the La Casa de Santa Claus in Tlalpujahua, Michoacan
context_page_description: Michoacán handcrafts and folk art is a Mexican regional tradition centered in the state of Michoacán, in central/western Mexico. Its origins traced back to the Purépecha Empire, and later to the efforts to organize and promote trades and crafts by Vasco de Quiroga in what is now the north and northeast of the state. The state has a wide variety of over thirty crafts, with the most important being the working of wood, ceramics, and textiles. A number are more particular to the state, such as the creation of religious images from corn stalk paste, and a type of mosaic made from dyed wheat straw on a waxed board. Though there is support for artisans in the way of contests, fairs, and collective trademarks for certain wares, Michoacán handcrafts lack access to markets, especially those catering to tourists.
context_section_description: Other crafts include leatherwork, wax items and papel picado.  Major leather goods include huaraches (the most common item), saddles, embroidered belts, leather backed chairs, and cueras (a kind of long deerskin coat). The Tierra Caliente region of the state is known for the making of a unique kind of leather-backed chair/bench. The leather rests on a frame made of strips of bark combed with hardwood twigs and branches. The frame is made from stronger woods. Wax sculpting is generally found in candle making and sculptures.
  Feather work is still done in Tlalpujahua and Morelia. This art has its origins and reached its peak during the late pre Hispanic period and into the very early colonial period, with feathers used to decorate shields, standards, headdresses, mosaic images, caps and more for the ruling classes. There are efforts to revive it. Tlalpujahua has workshops that create feather images of religious icons, landscapes, animals and more using feathers of different colors and sizes, mostly sold in Tlalpujahua and in Morelia. Local artisans Gabriel Olay Olay and Luis Guillermos Olay Barrientos have won national awards for their work. Gabriel Olay's work has been gifted by Mexican presidents to various dignitaries in the world.
  Cantera (tuff) is a volcanic stone particular to central Mexico and is a common material both for building and sculpting. Pink colored cantera can be seen all over the historic center of Morelia, with about 1,400 buildings being completely or partially built with it. Morelia remains a center for the working of this stone with raw materials and finished products sent to other parts of Mexico and abroad. Other towns known for this work are Tlalpujahua and Tzintzuntzan. The stone here comes in various colors such as gray, black, yellow and brown along with pink. Sculpted pieces include religious images and fountains, mostly made to order.
  The towns of Angahuan and Zirahuén are noted for small rag figures that portray scenes of daily life. Paracho, Aranza and Chrán make tops, yo-yo and cup-and-ball toys with small wood trucks made in Quiroga.
  Tlalpujahua's best-known craft is the making of glass spheres for Christmas trees, most of which are hand painted. These ornaments are sold in Mexico and exported abroad in the Americas as well as to Europe and Japan.
caption: Christmas ornaments in Tlalpujahua
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