Galleries and Shops

If you are seeking an art scene, galleries, cozy courtyard shops and hundreds of the best restaurants with a traditional approach San Migelle De Allende is the right place. Colonial architecture fills the entire city with warm colors. Church bells can be heard on every corner while you are diving through galleries, endless shops, craftsmen and artisans. The most visited gallery is Fabrica La Aurora, a former textile factory converted into artists studios and shops where you can meet all the artists every Thursday. Lots of my attention went to La Bottega Di Casa.
There is a great variety of European and American fabrics to make items to measure and the best selection of fabrics for upholstery, but it’s not just fabric – Mexican artisans also create designer pieces exclusively for La Bottega di Casa, offering unique items in ceramic, carved wood, and much more. If you need something for your home or as a gift, here you’ll find that perfect, unique piece you were looking for.

Independent artists

Walking down the Zacateros street I had the chance to bump into a very unusual store. All the items, mostly bags, were made of pop can ring pulls – even dresses and jackets. You can see on the pictures below a Mexican lady holding a ‘Metal dress’. Would it be environmental art? Or just fashion?

Walking down the same road I finally manage to find a leather craftsman as SMA doesn’t have many of them since Leon, a neighbor city, is the world center for leather products and they are all located there. Ernesto Hermandez G runs his small leather workshop surrounded with all kinds of machinery and piles of leather hides. Again I witnessed typical SMA hospitality and got invited to his workshop.

A little road from Zacateros called Pila Seca led me to a small shop called Mixta run by Anna Sinclair. Her items were very hip and urban. I would say a North American craft style which was quite surprising to find there. That was the only shop where i found felt products…who would believe that felt was never used in Mexico. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the products. What surprised me even more was when i found an old hand written book from Japanese temple written by monks and I couldn’t resist…

In the Craftsman Market, next to Hotel Quinta Lorto, I found an amazing Amber artist. Don Del Ambar creates unique pieces of jewellery captivated by the colours and form of Chiapan Amber. Chiapas amber is between 22 million and 26 million years old. The resin came from the Hymenaea Leguminoseae tree. Most of the Chiapas amber comes from an area in the Chiapas highlands near the town of Simojovel.

You can even spot artists who come just for few weeks and get inspired to work on streets of SMA

There is no better than Mercado de Artesanias for local craft and design. Here you can find imaginative spaces, fruits, jewellery, fabrics, ceramics, bags and all you can think of, for little price. San Migel de Allende has lots to offer, this little town of just a 100,000 population has a big personality.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 5:49 am and is filed under GENERAL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.