Familia Solis Hernandez

Zinapecuaro, Michoacan

Familia Solis Hernandez ceramic workshop is in a small Michoacán village where the earth offers excellent clay and where there is a long tradition of interesting pottery. Fernando Solis Luna, the son of a well-known ceramic artist, Martin Hernandez, has, like his father before him, earned many awards and state and national recognition for his refined sense of aesthetics and discernment in shapes and color. His one-of-a-kind museum quality ceramic art is fired at a medium temperature to enhance design detail, a process that requires extra firing to create the desired texture and visual focus.

This technique is referred to as bruñido al negative which involves polishing the clay with the use of many tools and raw materials to achieve a bright, fine sheen. Homemade kilns made of adobe and red bricks are used to fire his work. Wood is the fuel source.

Solis Luna is also a highly regarded ceramics teacher who concentrates on the preservation of these techniques which are inspired by his Purepecha cultural heritage.