Artisan-Made Day of the Dead Ivory Ceramic Cat Sculpture - Alabaster Meows

Artisan Organization: Jorge Escamilla

Country: Mexico

"Hi, I'm Jorge Escamilla! When you are a craftsman, you are faced with various challenges that range from overflowing with creativity to create endless art in its different shapes and sizes, to not valuing your achievements. Because it happens that, in the absence of faith in what you do, you come to despise your work. That happened to me for a long time, because since I was young, deprivation was already part of my life. Poverty in my home and not being able to study caused me to belittle myself.

"Fortunately, with the passage of time and my work, I have been able to overcome that mistaken image of myself. I am proud to see how my work has grown, to look back and see the young man who entered an artisan workshop as an apprentice and ended up overcoming those obstacles.

"It is incredible everything you can do with a simple ball of clay. This material is difficult to handle due to its fragility. It is delicate and often difficult to achieve pieces that obtain characteristics that go beyond simple craftsmanship. It is essential that it has the correct consistency. But seeing your finished piece, which you idealized and manufactured from scratch, becomes such a satisfaction that it encourages you to continue producing more. Knowing that many people who know your work consider it art, and always based on Mexican folklore.

"I would like to grow my workshop to have enough financial means so that my family does not need anything and that my children achieve the dreams that I could not. I want to continue to produce ceramic pieces, and ultimately to provide some benefit to my community, like with jobs for those who want to work in this incredible craft." "