Most of the boteas are now oval in shape, but we’ve seen many which are hollow out ovals carved into a rectangle. Adzes however can be traced into Mexico’s ancient pre-Hispanic past. Everything from planks to canoes used to be made by adze.

Our interest is in the unique shaping caused by an adze. We remove the "scooped" marks through sanding. And we don’t use wood in order to avoid warping and splitting; we use laminated medium density fiberboard instead.

The process of carving, sanding and hand painting them is so labor intensive that we cannot afford to wholesale them. The point is, you can use them. They make great snack bowls, or a cool place for keys (don’t toss them, just lay them in there) and they’re beautiful objet d’art to decorate with. And if you can’t imagine using them for a hand painted bowl full of fish, fast forward that idea to an impressive array of sushi!