Mario Fabricio Romero Hernandez

Mario Romero says: “I started this business by myself 10 years ago and my main motivation has always been to give the best I have to please the client so I am constantly searching for ways to improve techniques and qualities, as well as creating new designs. Our products include Talavera Toilets and Talavera Toilet sets and the design’s motifs range from a wide variety of plain colors to the pre-Hispanic, colonial, and ethnic motifs. In the process to create a Talavera Toilet, we basically use ceramic pastes and clay and we recycle all the wasting materials.

I am proud to have generated more than 30 jobs among my neighbors and friends. My dream since I was a kid has been to improve the quality of the crafts made in Dolores Hidalgo and to be acknowledged as one of the best artisans in the Republic of Mexico.”

The workshop is located in Dolores Hidalgo, a north-central part of the Mexican state Guanajuato. Dolores Hidalgo was originally known as Dolores until one early morning on September 16, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo stood on the steps of his parish church and uttered his famous cry for Mexican independence, "Grito de Dolores" and the town was renamed 'Dolores Hidalgo' in his honor. Today, Dolores Hidalgo is justly well known as a center for the design and fabrication of the popular Talavera ceramic pieces. Small factories and ceramic shops line the streets of Dolores Hidalgo.

To see the 'Taller' (workshop) is a sensory experience, the workshop is replete with a colorful variety of tiles, murals, bathroom fixtures, with a constant hub of activity of artisans thoroughly hand-painting each piece. Made from clay, shaped in molds and allowed to dry naturally, the process takes around 10 days. When dry, the pieces are delicate and need sanding and firing to prepare them for the decorative process.

Pieces are first coated with white enamel and then painted individually, always by hand, sometimes aided by plastic stencils. The pieces come to life with strikingly rich colors when they are fired for 5 hours at a temperature of 1100° Celsius (2012° Fahrenheit) in the kiln.

Mario Romero says: "we only fire the kiln once a day. It takes approximately 30 minutes for it to come to the proper temperature. Once closed, we need to wait for the next day to fire it again.”