Via SFChronicle: “Whether your interest lies with kitschy sombreros, handmade musical instruments, whimsical carved figures or fine silk shawls, one of Mexico’s greatest pleasures is visiting its hundreds of craft towns. In addition to some of the larger and better-known cities that produce Talavera tile (Puebla), silver (Taxco) and hammocks and mosaico tile (Mérida), clusters of artisan villages — some whose entire populations are employed in a single craft — are sprinkled throughout Oaxaca, Michoacán and Jalisco states. Oaxaca:

San Bartolo Coyotepec (about six miles south of Oaxaca) is famous for its barro negro, distinctive pearly-black pottery — from children’s whistles to large, elegant urns — made from local clay using a technique bequeathed by the ancient Zapotecs that uses an inverted saucer known as the “Zapotec wheel.” Teotitlán del Valle, another Zapotec village 17 miles southeast of Oaxaca, is the best known of a string of textile-producing towns. Its people have traded their renowned tapetes (woven wool carpets) internationally since shortly after World War II, and the town is full of home factories where residents laboriously card, spin and color wool, often using hand-gathered natural dyes. Santa Maria Atzompa (six miles northwest of Oaxaca), spread over the western end of the greater Monte Albán archaeological complex, is famous for its pots, bowls and plates fired with a distinctive emerald-green glaze. In recent years, the village has developed new styles of multicolored vases, red pottery and ceramics adorned with lilies.