Online GalleryLorenzo Mendez ~ Mica Cookware
Lorenzo Mendez ~ Mica Cookware
Master mica potter Felipe Ortega, sadly, now gone, was mentor to all our clay makers. Many years ago, Felipe called the gallery one day and announced, ”I've wasted a year of a young man's life.” “What do you mean Felipe?” “This young man, Lorenzo Mendez, came to my pottery a year ago and asked if he could study with me. And I told him he was too young – and he should go away and come back in a year if he still wanted to study.” This sounded like a Zen Master's retort to a request for a young would-be monk to enter meditation study. Felipe continued ”Well to my surprise, he came back almost to the day and I sighed, and said – “ok – here's some clay”. “I demonstrated the coil and scrape method of mica pot formation and left him in the studio for the afternoon.” “I came back after about four hours and he had made EIGHT perfectly made pots.” “I couldn't believe my eyes” ! “ “What planet are you from I shouted”! “I'm from Casas Grandes, Mexico,” “he replied”. “No wonder”!, Felipe exclaimed to me, Casas Grandes has been producing handmade magnificent intricately painted ornamental fine art pots for centuries, it's in his DNA! – his mastery of clay is just dazzling.” Lorenzo went on to explain, “We don't have mica clay there, so I wanted to learn how to make pots I can cook in.” Felipe continued– “I didn't think it would ever happen to me – because I'd given up – in forty years of teaching mica making all over the world – but its' happened!”- “The Student Has Become The Master.” “Just like the Zen teachings proclaim.” “He's better then me – more symmetrical, he works lighter, and I will never catch him.”
Mendez lives in Casas Grandes and regularly contributes his mica mugs, cook pots and sometimes intricately painted curved and carved mica cook pots as well as bowls and lidded casseroles to the gallery.
Mendez lives in Casas Grandes and regularly contributes his mica mugs, cook pots and sometimes intricately painted curved and carved mica cook pots as well as bowls and lidded casseroles to the gallery.