Baking and Serving Pieces (Including Open Casseroles)

Bowls

Casseroles, Bean Pots, Soup Tureens, Other Lidded Pieces

Hand Built Vases

Lamps

Mamarrachos (Masks and Figures)

Miscellaneous

Mugs, Cups, Soup Bowls

Pitchers

Plates

Salad Bowls with Utensils

Table Items (French Butter Bells, Margarine Tub Holders, Gravy Boats, etc.)

Utensil Holders, Vases

Veggie Plates

JACK DUNNING POTTERY
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SHOWS AND GALLERIES

Mamarracho, the Spanish word for a “grotesque mask or figurine” has no real English equivalent.

A number of years ago I found a tiny stall of hand-carved mamarrachos on a side street of Pátzcuaro, ain the mountains of the Mexican state of Michoacán. Fascinated, I bought one, and have loved it ever since. Some years later, in Pátzcuaro again, I went back to find the stall, but the carver had disappeared (possibly to go find better-paying work in the US, a fate of many of Michoacán’s people).

So now I make my own mamarrachos, inspired by that unknown carver. While clay is a very different medium than wood, and the clay mamarrachos are quite different, they maintain the whimsy of the grotesque I observed in the wooden masks that serve as their inspiration.

And mamarrachos are a heck of a lot of fun to make when you're in a frivolous mood!