Alebrijes, the dream creatures of Oaxaca

Alebrijes began as a fever dream. In 1936 a Mexico City artisan named Pedro Linares fell ill and dreamed of a forest of impossible creatures, a donkey with wings, a rooster with bull horns, all shouting one nonsense word: alebrijes. He made them in papier mache when he recovered. The dream traveled to Oaxaca, where carvers translated it into wood.

The wood is copal, soft enough to carve green with a machete and a knife, and the villages divide the work the way workshops always have: San Martin Tilcajete and Arrazola carve, whole families paint. The painting is the astonishing part, geometric Zapotec patterns laid on point by point with brushes of a few hairs, weeks of steady hands for a single piece.

A carved alebrije is one maker's dream twice over, Linares's and the carver's. On 1VIM the workshop's pin sits in the Oaxaca valleys, the price is the family's own, and the landed cost is on the listing before you pay.