In 1964, Joaquín Muñoz Orta traveled to Chicago and learned about the production of Christmas trees and ornaments. Back in Mexico City, he and wife, María Elena Ruiz, started to craft Christmas glass balls. They returned to their hometown of Tlalpujahua and permanently settled there to launch what has become an enormous economic boom for this tiny town.
Tlalpujahua is a village with a colonial mining past. Its Náhuatl name means ‘removed earth’ and is located in the Mexican province of Michoacán. This typical mining town was founded in the 16th century under the name of Real de Minas. After Mexico’s independence it became the main center of gold and silver mining. Today is home to handmade crafts and one of five leading areas producing Christmas ornaments.
Another city active in the manufacture of glass balls is Chignahuapan, Puebla, where more than 200 shops manufacture and distribute throughout Mexico, over 70 million Christmas ornaments annually. There are hundreds of models and shapes, each stylized by the artisans that put their own design on each ball.
Between August and December the activity of esferas de vidrio (blown glass balls) attracts hundreds of tourists. During the 2nd week of November, the National Tree Fair and the Sphere are celebrated.
Among the Christmas ornaments, glass balls are truly works of art and objects of beauty. They represent nature at its best. Spheres do not have a beginning, or an end. Their signature shape is the result of the universe’s gravitational forces. Their beauty lies in their perfect three-dimensional symmetry. Glass balls are human crafted replicas of our sun, the moon and the planets. Some of them are brightly colored; others are as airy as a soap bubble.
Hand blown glass is made by melting sand, limestone and ash. Glass blowing is a technique employed to shape liquid glass into objects, such as ornaments, beads and jewelry. To achieve this, a blow pipe is used to add air, to inflate the interior of the molten glass to create a bubble or blister. The process is launched by pouring a combo of sand, limestone and ash—finely ground. Next, the mixture is poured into a fused silica crucible and brought into an electric furnace heated at 1,400 degrees. The furnace melts the powdered mixture until it becomes liquid glass. Safety goggles and gloves at all times are mandatory.
When Joaquín Muñoz Orta and María Elena Ruiz set up their small home shop they had no idea that their company, Christmas Decorations, would one day become the largest Christmas Glass Balls manufacturer in Latin America. The company employs 1,100 people, produces 38 million units per year, of which, 26 million are exported, and the rest are sold nationally.
Today, Tlalpujahua’s main source of employment remains firmly rooted in the well deserved prestige of 40 years of "handmade” Christmas’ glass ornaments, which like the Phoenix bird, are daily reborn from fire, sand, limestone, and ash.
Esferas from Tlalpujahua are sold at Tres Rebecas.
