All Fired Up In METEPEC.

• Author: Murphy-Larronde, Suzanne
• Position: Craft center near Mexico City, Mexico

EVERY DAY REGARDLESS OF THE weather, a thousand suns rise and shine over Metepec, the celebrated craft center an hour's drive west of Mexico City. They're decorative ceramic suns, of course, complete with friendly faces in unglazed terra-cotta or garnished in bold pinks, oranges, yellows, and greens. Some even sport dapper black mustaches and flowery tattoos; others are arrayed in spiky halos or multitiered headdresses. A few, their lips pursed in a perfect circle, wear an expression of perpetual astonishment, but most are smiling. And why not? Over the last several decades, these stylized suns along with other exuberant works in clay, such as the candelabra-like trees of life, guitar-strumming mermaids, and Noah's Ark depictions, have succeeded in capturing the interest of growing numbers of national and international collectors while bringing recognition and prosperity to their talented creators.

Rooted in a vast, fertile valley at eighty-eight hundred feet and edged by towering mountains, Metepec lives in the advancing shadow of Toluca, its industrial powerhouse of a neighbor barely four miles away. On its northwestern boundary, where blocks of suburbs and U.S.-style malls have sprouted over the last several decades, the two cities have actually merged, although Metepec's compact historic center, home to many of its finest potters, still resonates to the traditional beat of its rural past. It's here that the saucy ceramic suns grin down on all who pass from their perches on single-story adobe buildings, church walls, street signs, and craft stores. And it is here that visitors can easily explore the area's many side streets, where small workshops abound, to browse, buy, or place that special order for creations big and small.

Pottery making dates back a thousand years or more in this clay-rich region of the state of Mexico. New designs and manufacturing techniques introduced during the Spanish colonization quickly melded with traditional, indigenous styles, and by the end of the nineteenth century, Metepec had become a thriving ceramic center known for its lustrous black and green tableware, candlestick holders, small, fanciful toys, and religious figurines. Famed Mexican artist and tireless folk art promoter Diego Rivera is credited with introducing bold new color schemes to a local pottery-making family on a visit to Metepec in the early 1940s. His groundbreaking approach caught on as other artisans quickly followed suit. Then, in...