9 stores · curated ORBIS register
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
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
Oaxaca / Mexico
For two decades Fe y Lola has hand-woven wool rugs in Teotitlán del Valle using Zapotec techniques and natural dyes drawn from local plants and cochineal instead of chemicals. Visitors to the Francisco I. Madero workshop can watch the dyeing and weaving in progress and buy directly from the makers.
Best for Zapotec weaving, wool rugs, natural dyes, textiles, tapetes
Ocotlán de Morelos / Mexico
In Ocotlán de Morelos, Oaxaca — a town independent sources put at roughly 45 blade-producing workshops — the Aguilar family workshop is documented as the only one that still forges every piece entirely by hand, using hammer, anvil and a stone-and-brick furnace fired with hardwood charcoal, rather than the semi-industrial methods most of the town's other shops have since adopted.
Best for Fully hand-forged knives and machetes from an Ocotlán charcoal forge
In Ocotlán de Morelos, Oaxaca — a town independent sources put at roughly 45 blade-producing workshops — the Aguilar family workshop is documented as the only one that still forges every piece entirely by hand, using hammer, anvil and a stone-and-brick furnace fired with hardwood charcoal, rather than the semi-industrial methods most of the town's other shops have since adopted. Brothers Ángel and Apolinar Aguilar Velasco learned blacksmithing from their uncle Ricardo Guzmán and formally established the workshop in 1970; a third brother, Jesús Aguilar Velasco, also works the forge. Ángel has since died; Apolinar continues the trade.
The workshop forges knives, machetes, daggers, sabers and swords from repurposed scrap steel — car parts and construction offcuts — a materials choice the family frames as a matter of available supply as much as tradition. Documented clients span Mexico's Colegio Militar and Boy Scouts, regional theater and film productions, and practitioners of shamanic and martial-arts traditions who commission specific blade forms; the workshop's Wikipedia-cited history also records one piece being sold to Amalia Solórzano de Cárdenas, a private individual, who separately gave it to then-president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz — a real but more indirect connection than a direct workshop-to-president commission, stated here plainly rather than implied as closer than the source actually supports. Apolinar is quoted arguing that mass-produced competitors sell blades that are "menos costosas, pero de menor calidad" (cheaper, but of lesser quality) — a specific trade claim rather than an unverifiable boast about heritage.
An encyclopedic biographical profile and Mexican business listings place the workshop at Callejón Victoria, Colonia Centro, Ocotlán de Morelos; it also has a Facebook business page. Sources also note the workshop's declining volume since 2006 amid falling regional tourism and cheaper Chinese imports.
Oaxaca, Oaxaca City
Mamá Pacha Chocolate has run a chocolate workshop in Oaxaca de Juárez since 2018, transforming cacao sourced from the Soconusco region of Chiapas, the Chontalpa in Tabasco and the Chinantla in Oaxaca. It operates a retail shop and beverage bar at Santos Degollado 311.
Best for Small batch oaxacan chocolate
Oaxaca, Teotitlán del Valle
Huella Carmín weaves rugs, sombreros, pet beds and laptop cases in Teotitlán del Valle on pedal looms using natural dyes and pre-Hispanic patterns, describing each textile as carrying the family's own history. It also runs hands-on workshops teaching the weaving process and operates related ventures Nashun Pets and Casa Carmín.
Best for Pedal loom textiles and workshops
Oaxaca, Teotitlán del Valle
Ruiz Bazán weaves rugs from 100% natural wool in Teotitlán del Valle, with the family handling every step from washing and carding raw wool to dyeing it with natural dyes and weaving it on foot looms. The workshop also makes purses, pillow covers and coasters to order and offers free tours by appointment.
Best for Natural wool rugs from teotitlan
Oaxaca, Teotitlán del Valle
Textiles de Lana y Algodón hand-weaves rugs, bedspreads, tablecloths and table runners in Teotitlán del Valle using natural wool and cotton dyed with natural dyes, a technique passed down through generations of craft families. The workshop, at Calle de Fiallo 3a Cerrada #13, takes custom orders and ships internationally.
Best for Hand woven wool and cotton textiles
Oaxaca, Teotitlán del Valle
Tapetes Vásquez in Teotitlán del Valle describes itself as a workshop and gallery selling rugs woven from 100% wool on a loom.
Best for Wool rugs woven on loom
Curated ORBIS register · official links shown where recorded
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit Facebook ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗