Craft guide
ORBISCRAFT & ATELIERS IN OAXACA4 stores · curated ORBIS register
Oaxaca
Taller Jacobo y María Ángeles hand-carves copal wood into alebrijes, tonas and nahuales in the Zapotec spiritual tradition, founded in 1994 in San Martín Tilcajete. The workshop has expanded into fine jewelry and ceramics, and runs its own reforestation program to sustain the wood it depends on.
Best for Copal-wood alebrijes, tonas, nahuales, jewelry and ceramics
Valles Centrales, Oaxaca
Mal de Amor operates an artisanal mezcal palenque in Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca, founded in 2010, offering guided distillery tours, tastings and a barrel experience called the Barritour. The site also includes an Oaxacan restaurant, cocktail bar and space for private events for up to 400 guests.
Best for Mezcal palenque tours and tastings
Puerto Escondido / Mexico
Ody Ordaz hand-shapes surfboards at his own factory and shop in Zicatela, Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, selling in-stock boards and custom orders that can be arranged remotely. The shop keeps seasonal, appointment-based hours and ships online.
Best for Made-to-order surfboards shaped in Zicatela
Odyboards is a working surfboard factory and shop in the Zicatela district of Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca - one of Mexico's best-known point breaks - where shaper Ody Ordaz makes boards by hand rather than running a machine-shaped production line. The business operates as both retail counter and workshop under one roof, selling in-stock boards directly off the shelf alongside custom orders that customers can arrange remotely from anywhere before they arrive in Oaxaca, a useful option for surfers planning a trip around picking up a board built to their own specifications. The shop keeps seasonal, appointment-based hours in person, reflecting Puerto Escondido's own surf season rather than a standard year-round retail schedule, and supplements walk-in sales with an online store for customers who can't make it to Zicatela directly. The site runs in both English and Spanish, signaling a clientele that leans heavily on international surf travelers passing through this stretch of the Oaxacan coast as much as on local riders. For visitors already making the trip to surf Zicatela's break, Odyboards offers a direct line to the person actually shaping the boards, rather than a shop reselling factory-made stock from elsewhere.
San Martín Tilcajete, Oaxaca / Online
In San Martín Tilcajete, Jacobo and María Ángeles lead a workshop of dozens of carvers and painters making intricately carved alebrijes and tonas from copal wood, painted with Zapotec-inspired iconography. Visitors can tour the taller, meet the makers and buy work directly.
Best for Master alebrijes and tonas from Tilcajete
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