Advertorial // Pottery Express

Pottery Express is the major distributor of Mexican Talavera in the United States. One of the hotter trends in home and garden decor, Talavera is the brightly colored hand-painted Mexican pottery made into pots, planters and animals like frogs, turtles and fish. These come in the form of garden art, wall art and beautiful animal planters.

The five-year-old company has grown dramatically even in this economy. The growth comes from expanding the national and international customer base and repeat business. This has been no accident. Pottery Express boasts the industry’s lowest prices, prompt order fulfillment (within 1 week) and a 100-percent guarantee against breakage.

Looking to Nature for Inspiration
Many Talavera designs have been inspired by nature’s own beauty. For example, the Marine Collection of Talavera fish, seahorses, crabs, shrimp and alligators is based upon colors found in coral reefs. Often using deep Pacific blues, and other times the lighter Caribbean blues, artists paint dramatic sea creatures which seem as if they are swimming along, or have just emerged from the world’s second longest barrier reef running along the coast of Mexico and Belize!

Pots and Planters
Many of the pots and planters have similar and, occasionally, identical designs and color patterns to those from Italy and other parts of Europe. This is no accident, and it is not just a matter of copying designs from other artists. Talavera originated in Spain in the 18th century, and even though the technique was carried to Mexico, one would be hard-pressed to tell the difference today between an expensive Italian Planter and a humbly priced Mexican Talavera planter.

Indeed, many color patterns of the pots, planters, window boxes, bird baths and fountains are called Granada, Florentine red, Florentine blue, or European yellow, and those colors can be as sophisticated as those in ceramics of Provence and Italy—but at a small fraction of the cost!

Accidental Beginnings
Pottery Express came about quite by happy accident. Founder Dave Palmer has had a life-long appreciation of Mexican art and craft. Adventuring in Mexico in 2002 he stopped at a pottery display along a Mexican highway. It turned out to be the factory and warehouse of one of Mexico’s largest Talavera manufacturers! Within a year Pottery Express had its own warehouse in Guadalajara, and accounts with the three major Talavera manufacturers. Imported products of several kinds, not just Talavera, arrive at the warehouse in Punta Gorda, Fla., in 53-foot trucks. Today the company is operated by a very friendly and capable full-time staff of 12, and is opening a distribution location in San Antonio, Texas.

A New Adventure
In his travels Dave is always on the prowl for important but underappreciated artists and art forms. A few years ago he began importing native arts and crafts from various tribal villages in the Mexican states of Michoacan, Guanajuato and Oaxaca. Now he is introducing an exciting new artist.

In January at the AmericasMart in Atlanta in booth 52 and 53 in Building 2 West Wing on the 10th Floor, along with its Talavera showroom the company will introduce the work of a very talented Mexican artist whose medium is blown glass and steel. “There is not a doubt in my mind that many of these pieces will find their way into gallery and museum collections as well as important private collections,” Dave says.

Pottery Express
www.potteryexpress.com
(941)-505-8400