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Regalos de Abiquiú
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Regalos de Abiquiú Store
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Regalos de Abiquiú: Our Story
We are Regalos de Abiquiú, a small women-run business with a far-reaching mission of contributing to economic development in the Northern New Mexico area through the reviving and strengthening of traditional Hispanic and Native American arts.
In 1997, Helen LaKelly Hunt, owner of El Sueño del Corazón, gifted us with a wonderful opportunity through the funding and continued support of a micro enterprise. Though we had no previous business experience, we have a strong desire to create opportunity for our families and our community.
We want to keep alive the traditions of our parents and grandparents, share the beauty of our culture with others, and create career options here in Abiquiú for our children and their children.
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Our business began in 1995 with decorated glass votive candles, which have bands of tin and copper imprinted with a pattern. This tin and copper work is a craft that is traditional within our region.
One of our most popular candles is an image of Pedernal, the mountain that Georgia O’Keefe made famous through her paintings.
Individuals and organizations also custom order our candles as commemorative items to celebrate marriages, births, to honor employees, board members, or donors.
We also have T-shirts with our famous Pedernal image, and a cookbook of traditional Northern New Mexico recipes. This book contains recipes handed down to us from our mothers and grandmothers. Our enchiladas and homemade tortillas have gotten rave reviews. Our greatest challenge in creating the cookbook was to write out the recipes, because our way of cooking is usually by intuition rather than exact measurement.
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 Micaceous pottery slip
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In 1997 we found ourselves moving in a very exciting direction. Potters in our area had begun reviving Micaceous clay pottery. Once fired, micaceous clay turns warm brown and is laced with glittery specs of mica. We can also smoke the pottery, turning it black, and some of the pieces come out in a calico design of brown with interesting black markings.
Samples of this pottery date back to the 1700’s and earlier, though historians can’t agree as to whom began creating these vessels first, the Hispanics of the Native Americans.
We actually have a site about two miles from our production space that has pottery shards hundreds of years old and we have found shards of micaceous clay pots mixed in with the more traditional Native American painted pottery designs.
The pottery is functional as well as beautiful, and was the primary cookware of our ancestors. One of our most popular shapes is the traditional bean pot. The mica acts as a conductor to create an even cooking surface, keeping hot food warm and cold food cool while decoratively adorning your table.
Master potter Felipe Ortega trained us. He has been involved with the craft for over thirty years, and his pottery is known nationally and internationally. Our work is exceeding other work in the region, partially because of Felipe’s fine teaching.
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We share a production space that is filled with light, assisting each other with every piece.
Once we have enough pieces, we conduct a firing in an horno oven built from adobe bricks outside our studio. It is amazing to watch the fire transform the gently rounded green clay into bowls and pots that can cook our food.
There is a special quality to Northern New Mexico, a peace of mind and an enduring spirit. We offer that quality to those who seek it in every pot we make, so that they can take a little of our spirit into their homes.
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Micaceous pottery bowl
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www.regalos.com
... coming soon .... |
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Contact Information
Regalos de Abiquiú, Highway 84, Drive 1619, Abiquiú, New Mexico, 87510
phone: 505.685.4948; fax: 505.685.0828
email: RegalosNM@aol.com
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