Capula Catrinas

Capula was a pottery village long before it was famous - its punteado ware, dotted in fine patterns, still fills Michoacan kitchens - but what put it on the map is the Catrina. Jose Guadalupe Posada's skeleton dandy, drawn as satire in the early 1900s and named by Diego Rivera, found a second life in Capula's clay: local ceramist Juan Torres began modelling her at scale in the 1990s, and the village followed, until today dozens of workshops turn out Catrinas by the thousand - elegant skeletons in feathered hats, wedding gowns, rebozos and revolutionary bandoliers, painted in fine detail from palm-sized figures to pieces taller than the artisan. Visitors watch moulding, hand-modelling, drying racks and the painting benches where the character actually appears, then buy at prices a fraction of city galleries. Each October the village hosts a Catrina fair timed to Day of the Dead, with competitions, monumental pieces and workshops opening their yards. The rest of the year, the smell of wet clay and the sight of a hundred skeletons drying in the sun does the job by itself.

What you actually see

• The Catrina benches - skeletons painted into character.
• The scale range - palm-sized to taller than a person.
• The punteado ware - the village's older dotted pottery.
• The October fair - competitions and monumental figures.

When to go

October for the fair and Day of the Dead stock; any weekday morning for working workshops. Craft is year-round.

Honest expectations

Pieces are fragile and often large - plan packing or shipping before falling in love with a metre-tall Catrina. Quality varies widely between workshops; the named ateliers charge accordingly and earn it.

Nearby

Morelia's cathedral and aqueduct are half an hour east; Quiroga's craft market and Lake Patzcuaro continue west.