Teotitlán del Valle
A Glimpse Into the Life of a Zapotec Artisan Family
She is now elderly and continues to work the beeswax and make candles daily, as well as teach new generations of artisans in her area to carry on her work. She started working making candles at 8 years old, and over 64 years later she still carries on this work. The opportunity to own candles personally made by her grows smaller and smaller. It is an extraordinary gift to have this connection with such an amazing woman.
Visiting Doña Viviana at Work
Josefina got to spend some incredible time with master candlemaker Doña Viviana in Teotitlán del Valle in the Valle Central (central valley) of Oaxaca, nestled right up to the base of the Sierra Sur Mountains. There is truly beautiful work from a beautiful soul.
In her small shop, she works with daughters-in-law to create original beeswax candles by hand. She is involved in every part of the process, from bleaching the beeswax in the sun, to packing the wood to melt it, to hand-dipping handmade molds and shaping intricate pieces by hand. She's an incredible woman, and it was an honor for Josefina to meet her.
Here you can see la Señora Viviana working with her beeswax to make beautiful and delicate hand shaped flower candles, as she interacts with a visitor, and even lets a visitor try her hand at creating the flowers.
Visiting Doña Viviana's Display Studio
This was a real treat! Everywhere you can look there are gorgeous candles on display. Most are already sold through pre-orders, but there are usually some available for purchase that you can take with you same day.
The studio smells amazing. While no overpowering fragrances or essential oils are added, there's the sweet and slightly smoky fragrance of the beeswax itself, and some of the pieces smell as though the wax cured next to cinnamon or pine. It's a very pleasant and mild scent.
There are candles for the ofrenda, as well as candles for proposals of marriage. There are candles to memorialize those who've been lost, and candles for weddings and baptisms. There are candles that are just beautiful and decorative. and they're all handmade, making them unique and one-of-a-kind.
Bringing Some Back for Our Shop
We were fortunate enough to be able to pick up a handful of pieces to bring back with us for our shop, and were even more thrilled to see how beautifully they shipped. Over the months since we've learned which items ship the best, but imagine our surprise when on our first shipment, done in the hottest part of the United States summer, not even the most delicate of petals melted or misshaped. She had assured us that they would ship just fine, and she was right!
Candles with heavy columns surrounded by delicate petalwork require special packaging and handling to avoid being crushed by their own weight when shipping, but smaller, lighter candles such as tapers ship with very minimal extra care.
Getting to Teotitlán del Valle is not easy for us. It's a 5-hour bus ride for Josefina followed by another hour or two in a car or another bus, and then some walking to get up to the studio, but it's a very special experience, and one we try to do as often as we can. We don't know how much longer the world will have the precious Viviana, and we want to be a part of her life for as much as we can.
