Escuela de Plateria - Maestros de Taxco

Eco-cultural Excursions

Silver Items for Sale

The Cultural Center and Silver smithing School of Taxco is offering the sale of this very special collection.

It is ideal for a family or to give as a special present.

We ask your support in selling this collection to help fund the projects planned for our growing Cultural Center and School.

Thank you-
Claudia Cota (Director)
TEL: (762)6222131

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

EL CENTRO CULTURAL ESCUELA DE PLATERIA MAESTROS DE TAXCO.
PONE A LA VENTA ESTA COLECCION DE ORFEBRERIA, IDEAL PARA UNA
FAMILIA O REGALO ESPECIAL.
LES PIDO SU APOYO PARA PODER VENDER ESTA COLECCION Y PODER
APOYAR A LOS COMPROMISOS QUE LA ESCUELA ADQUIRIO Y TIENE
PENDIENTES.

1.- RENTA
2.- HERRAMIENTA
3.- PRESTAMOS
4.- LIQUIDES

y sobre todo estructurar todo este centro cultural con la escuela
GRACIAS-
CLAUDIA COTA
TEL: (762)6222131

Special Collection for Sale

Wolmar "Tito" Castillo

Tito started the course off with a slideshow of jewelry pieces made using the technique of repousse and chasing.

There were slides of silver pieces from a variety of ancient civilizations.
He also showed us slides on Taxco's greats: William Spratling and Los Castillos.

Afterwards he lectured us on everything from the principles and molecular structure of silver to his theory on approaching a design. He shared his recipe for pitch (or brea in Spanish). This is the substance that we will work the metal in. It supports the sheet of silver while it is being hammered with different steel punches - the tools that we would need and be making as we go.

Later that evening we all went upstairs to the room that holds a ton of wax molds. This was to help us get an idea of the ultimate 3-D approach that we would need to envision to come up with our designs. Since the piece of jewelry starts out as a flat sheet of metal this is very important to grasp !

Tito is a great teacher- The whole day was really informative and fun !

Nacho Gomez and Claudia Cota

Juan Ruiz de Alarcon y Mendoza

The silver face pictured above was fabricated using a technique called REPOUSSE- one of the lost arts that is being taught and revived in the silver smithing school.

Nacho Gomez - one of the many VERY talented teachers at the school is pictured here speaking about how he made his piece. Claudia Cota (the director of the school) is talking to some of the students about how difficult it is to achieve this level of volume in what started out as a flat sheet of silver/metal- alloyed to 980.

The silver face is of the Spanish playwright Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza (1581-1639) who was born in Mexico to parents from distinguished Spanish families.

Juan Ruiz de Alarcon was educated in both Mexico and Spain and obtained two law degrees. He later became a playwright and when he returned to Spain in 1614 he was considered a major figure of Spain's Golden Age, 1580-1680. His work is distinguished by mastery of humorous dialogue and by use of a thesis, or basic premise, to satirize common human failings.

Juan Ruiz de Alarcón wrote less than 30 plays, all in verse. In spite of his output, relatively small in his day, he ranks among the European comic geniuses.

(This biographical information on Juan Ruiz de Alarcon y Mendoza was taken from this website : http://www.answers.com/topic/juan-ruiz-de-alarc-n
and shall be given the proper credit).

The classroom