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 Vallarta Living | October 2007 
Glaze of Glory: Decorating with Pottery
 Jessie Milligan - Star-Telegram
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| | Mixing Talavera with lemons and limes can bring out two of the ceramics' signature colors - yellow and green. (novica.com) |
With its dazzling color and intricate designs, Mexican Talavera-style pottery can add a splash of brilliance to your home and garden. Here's how.
If Talavera had DNA, it would reveal its well-traveled parentage. In ninth-century Mesopotamia - modern-day Iraq and Iran - potters dropped a tiny amount of tin into a transparent lead glaze. The result was a creamy white luster perfect for painting brilliantly colored and delicate designs. Arabs and Moors passed these tin-glazed ceramics on to Europe through trade with the Italians and the Spanish. Roman Catholic priests imported the ceramics from Talavera de Reina in Spain to colonies in Mexico, and the Mexican culture greatly enlarged the art, making it one of the nation's best-known exports. Talavera is a well-loved tradition in Texas as well, showing up in many homes and gardens as colorful reminders of Southwestern roots. Here are a few tips for buying and decorating with Talavera.
Try new styles
Talavera designs featuring calla lilies, sunflowers and peacock feathers are common in North Texas. Yet those motifs are only a small representation of the beautifully detailed art of the genre. Add to your collection by looking for a wider range of designs. We found these one-of-a-kind pieces labeled as being imported from Puebla, Mexico, the center of authentic Talavera.
How to use Talavera
Modern replicas of authentic Talavera can be made with lead-free glazes and paints, but if you are left to guess, don't use the objects for food.
Set the plates on small easels or use plate hangers to hang them on walls.
Talavera pieces can look good grouped together. The consistency of the color palette helps various patterns blend well. Talavera includes at least one, or all, of these colors: navy blue, brown, yellow, green and lavender. Sixteenth-century Talavera was just blue and white.
Go for fusion. The deep blues often found in Talavera allow it to look good beside classic blue and white Chinese ceramics.
Make an all-green bouquet with small, leafy limbs from the yard. It will set off the greens in the Talavera.
A Talavera bowl of lemons or limes picks up two of the ceramic's common colors: yellow and green.
Use less-expensive Talavera pots, vases and urns as garden accents during fair weather.
What's authentic?
Most Talavera in North Texas is a somewhat rustic replica of the real thing. That's OK. It's a fraction of the price of real Talavera, which can run as high as $30,000 for a dinner service for 12. Mexico sets regulating standards to ensure that authentic Talavera is made just as it was in colonial times:
• It is to be made only made in Puebla, just as true Champagne is made only in the Champagne region of France.
• The ceramics must be handmade and hand painted.
• The glaze must be made of lead and tin.
• The background paint must be off-white, never pure white.
• Real Talavera must be intricate in design. If you want high-end Talavera, you might want to take a trip. If you can visit the 183-year-old Uriarte Talavera factory in Puebla, you'll see what is widely regarded as the highest form of the art.
Meet the painter of your Talavera in the virtual world by logging on to www.novica.com. The online store is run in association with National Geographic. Click on products to see photographs of the artists and short personal statements about themselves and their art.
Jessie Milligan, 817-390-7738, jlmilligan@star-telegram.com |
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