I had the pleasure to meet Senior Porfirio Bustillo,
a mason in Alamo, Sonora who specializes in fireplaces.
These next couple posts will concentrate on the work he is doing
on his house which is under construction.
I love to profile the people,
as well as their work,
and their own houses.
[This post, one of my all time favorites, is part of my look back at older work,
and was originally done 2/18/11.]
Porfirio let me photograph his work and
was willing to share his secrets.
It is truly a breath of fresh air to meet craftspeople who are willing
to share what they know with others.
All of us are a synthesis of what we have learned from others
and it is those who come behind us who need a hand to develop their style.
Thanks Porfirio for being that open and generous person.
And now to these fish.
They are not ceramic.
He makes them freehand from a mix of cement and brick dust.
He takes low fired brick that are common here
and rubs it against a stone to make the dust.
One can experiment with proportions,
and either grey or white cement.
Once set up they are then applied to the wall.
This hood and flue in his future kitchen
will cover a wood fire on the right for grilling
and on the left will be propane burners.
He has done a beautiful job with this decorative cement work
which is made to look like carved cantera stone.
The squared off sections are done with wooden form boards in place.
The raised sections are done by hand.
Later I will show how the finish is done.
The complete series on Porfirio's work is:
