Meeting Ken Edwards of Tonala

I have long known of Ken Edwards' famous pottery, produced in Tonala, near Guadalajara. On a long trip we took all over Mexico in 1979, we visited his factory and I bought a mug which was my favorite for a long time, even after I dropped it and it lost its handle. Last year, Kelly and I went to the Ken Edwards store in Tonala, about an hour away from our Lake Chapala home, and bought ourselves a lovely set of of dishes, mostly seconds and very reasonably priced. I've enjoyed them tremendously. That link takes you to my blog entry about visiting there last year. At that time, we learned that Ken himself was mostly living and doing pottery in Guatemala, by Lake Atitlan.

Recently I was emailing with a man who had some questions about getting set up with a website. He mentioned that he was Ken's nephew, and that Ken was in Tonala for a few days. This fellow, Peter, thought that we and Ken had a lot in common and would we like to meet him? I said sure, and so Ken and I exchanged a few emails. It was obvious that Ken had a far-ranging mind... He was fascinated by Kelly's earthbag building techniques, for one thing!

So yesterday we found Ken at his apartment next door to the Tonala factory. He sold the business a while back, keeping just a small percentage ownership, but he still comes to Tonala regularly and is involved with it. We settled down to chat a while. I hadn't really known what to expect, but Ken Edwards is a fascinating raconteur, and that far-ranging mind goes everywhere! At 82, Ken has lost none of his marbles... he has more on the ball than most people of any age. That's inspiring to us as we look ahead.

I knew that he had first come to Mexico in 1954, and I asked him to fill in some of his history with my little voice recorder going. You can hear part of that via the link at the bottom of this blog entry.

I notice now, playing the mp3 file back, one spot where my editing of the file last night makes for some confusion. Where he's talking about working with Jorge Wilmot in doing pottery, I cut out some bits and suddenly he's saying "We came down," and I ask if it's Edwards James. James was an eccentric Englishman whom Ken had known in Malibu, famous for later building the surreal Las Pozas in the tropical jungle of Mexico... that link takes you to my photo page from several years ago, when Kelly and I went there and were enchanted by the place. I digress... but that's the way the conversation went! This selection is about 11 minutes long and talks about teaching English as a second language, Bohemians, and more, with a few bits about pottery. Now and then you hear Kelly's voice too.

Ken went on to tell us about the years in Tonala and Tlaquepaque, his life with his wife Jackie who is mentioned in the conversation. (She died 12 years ago, and her ashes are in this pot, which was her favorite.) His pottery became world famous. This seemed to matter less to him than the adventure of whatever is next. I was intrigued by how technical his mind is... besides the artistic side, he was always coming up with new ways to do things in the factory. Ken and Kelly talked about earthbag building and catenary arches. Ken was astonished to learn that I'm the daughter of Cordwainer Smith, as he loves science fiction. The time sped by. I asked him if he had any advice for staying so sharp mentally. He commented that in his case, he always has a new project going.

Eventually, we went next door to see the factory, and I will blog about that shortly.

Now here's the link to the mp3 file of the first 11 and a half minutes of our conversation... It will probably open to play in the same window or tab you are now in.