landmark
Pátzcuaro
A Purépecha and colonial town of whitewashed, red-trimmed houses above Lake Pátzcuaro, home to Mexico's most famous Day of the Dead vigil and to butterfly-net fishermen on the lake.
16 km · about 20 min drive
Michoacán, Mexico · North America
Chapa is worth a stop: 5 minutes from Santa Clara del Cobre, 16km from Pátzcuaro.
Chapa is a town located in Michoacán, Mexico. With a population of 1,066, it is an important destination in North America.
On a road trip, Chapa sits in Mexico, where you drive on the right. It's in the America/Mexico City time zone. Below you'll find where to stay, things to do nearby, and everything you need to add Chapa to your route.
The Punzo family contains two of the best known copper and silver smiths located in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán, Mexico. The family descends from copper smith Carlos Punzo Córdoba. The two main smiths today are brothers Abdón Punzo Ángel and Ignacio Punzo Ángel, each of whom has his own workshop in which theirRead more
sons and grandsons work and learn the craft of working copper and silver.
Their workshops are located in the town of Santa Clara del Cobre, which is about twelve km from Pátzcuaro and part of a region with a long history of handcrafts, passed down generations. Each of the various towns has its own specialty and for Santa Clara del Cobre, it is copper working, with over fifty workshops that employ more than 300 artisans, or about eighty percent of the town's workforce. The town is known worldwide for its copper work, using traditional methods in open air workshops. Hammers, tongs and other tools are found on workshop walls and tables and the copper is heated in a large wood-fired forge.(gmasters329-330) As the region no longer mines copper, the raw material is scrap copper from old autos and cable, which he buys from telephone and electrical companies. Sledgehammers are used to pound blocks of copper to start and very fine hammers and awls are used for delicate details. Pieces are reheated as necessary as the pieces is pounded into shape. Decorative shapes such as animals are tapped outside the vessel from the inside and then backed with a substance called chapopote to keep the shape as the minute details are tapped in from the outside.
Almost all of the objects are hammered into shape from a single piece or block of copper, including details like handles and decorative figures which are shaped along with the main body. This eliminates the need for soldering. The embossing, also called repoussé and chasing, is a form of decorating the basic shape of a vessel or other piece. It consists of hammering the piece from the inside to push the shape outwards. After this shape is made, details are added by chiseling and engraving. Then the copper pieces are put into a large pot of boiling water in order to give them their distinctive color. To give pieces an added shine, they are treated with sulfuric acid, soap, water and steel wool.
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Chapa is located in Michoacán, Mexico, North America. The coordinates are 19.3798 latitude, -101.6646 longitude.
Chapa has a population of approximately 1,066 people, making it a town in Mexico.
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Essential numbers in Mexico
Green Angels (free tourist roadside assistance on federal highways): 078.
Full driving guide for Mexico1 notable place within an hour's drive.
landmark
A Purépecha and colonial town of whitewashed, red-trimmed houses above Lake Pátzcuaro, home to Mexico's most famous Day of the Dead vigil and to butterfly-net fishermen on the lake.
16 km · about 20 min drive
Year-round
Tropical latitude: plan around the wet season rather than temperature.
Other places to explore near Chapa.
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