Angel Santos Juarez is a Mexican potter born today, April 10, 1964, in Zacateca. Although his family moved to Tonala, Jalisco, a well known ceramics town, he did not come from a family of potters. Instead, after showing an interest at an early age, Juarez was apprenticed to Manuel Silva at age 7. His specialty became miniatures and his decorative painting, but he also makes larger works. While other potters rely on designs handed down and perfected through the years, he is adept at taking motifs and themes and making them his own. He went on to obtain degrees from University of Guadalajara in graphic design and sculpture. He has his own studio where his wife Alicia and two children assist him.
Santos Juarez works in the traditional Brunido (burnished) method. He mixes his clay with his bare feet on the ground, presses the clay into basic shape molds, after drying to a leatherhard state he burnishes the piece and it is dipped into slip (a watered down colored clay solution) and fired. After the first firing, the pieces are then decorated, burnished again and fired once more. A selection of his work is shown here...
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