I met Daniela and Hector at a craft fair in Austin, Texas. I was thrilled to find out they were working and living in the Bay Area. A couple months later, Steve, my BF, and I met up with them, and their dog Flinka, at Fort Mason in San Francisco, to pick up our first order of holiday mugs.
See our mugs here.
The back story behind why Daniela makes xolos (Mexican hairless dogs)...
In ceramics class, during my third year studying Visual Arts in Xalapa, the teacher gave an assignment to take a prehispanic piece and give it a contemporary twist. It wasn't such a creative idea, but I took the xolo and made it into a mug. It came out really nice, even the teacher said so. Then a colleague in the class, who was a more advanced ceramicist, decided to add to my piece. It ended up causing some reaction in the kiln and ruined my piece! Ever since, in some way, I have been trying to recreate that piece.
The following answers are from Daniela, unless Hector, Daniela's husband shows up...
Coffee or tea
Coffee, lechero style, mostly milk with coffee
What’s a current curiosity
I want to learn how to kill a chicken. How I would feel doing it, how I would feel eating it afterward, etc.
Do you have a favorite from your work
An xolo I made using the raku technique. It was one of the first I made, and I've never made another like it. It has a bigger head and has its ears down.
Best advice you have been given
Not sure if this is the best advice, but good advice. I was recently told by my grandfather that if you cook nopales (cactus) with a piece of copper pipe they stay nice and green. I guess this is in case you don't have a copper pot to cook them in.
Hector: "Hay que meterle para sacarle." Rough translation is "you have to put something in to take something out."
Last thing you ate
Watermelon
Last airplane ride
Returning from New York, from a craft fair, where I confirmed I don't really like big cities.
Last hard choice
Coming to the U.S.
Last gift you received
Hector took me to float along the Russian River, actually right after we met with you and Steve. Flinka almost died 5 times.
Last purchase
My "maquina para churros" - a clay extruder I've been wanting for a long time.
Last argument
When I drink I argue. I don't remember what it was about.
Hector: It was about me not communicating enough. In this case, Daniela had been drinking so it was smarter to stay quiet.
Daniela: He always stays quite. I hate it.
Last kiss
I kissed Flinka on her head.
Last dream
I don't remember.
Hector: I'm usually the one that remembers dreams. In the last one there were two Danielas, and one jumped behind a bush in front of my childhood home as I tried to figure out which was the "real" Daniela. Without getting into the possible psychoanalytic interpretations, this must have been influenced by the "Home for Peculiar Children" movie we saw recently, which was, to be honest, a pretty bad movie.
Last comfort
Berkeley Bowl pumpkin ice cream
Last thing you’re coveting at Beklina
Anntian Big Knit Blanket Sediment. It's Beautiful.