If your impression of Mexican crafts is clay-colored tourist pottery and rustic chairs of pigskin leather stretched over a wood-slat frame, then a new Evanston shop, Cassona 1509, will show you how sophisticated that country’s crafts have become.
Opened last fall by partners Alma I. Gutierrez and Alan Gregory, the shop has terra-cotta floors, painted walls and rambling aisles filled with decorating treasures from centuries-old craft centers such as Puebla and Guadalajara.
In Spanish, cassona means a large, imposing house or mansion, which likely would be decorated with the upscale handmade wares one sees in the store. The shop is filled with the traditional crafts of Mexico–carved pine furniture, metalwork, ceramics, tinware–made by contemporary artisans with some elegant twists. For example, there is an exquisite champagne bucket, made of recycled, bluish-tinted handblown glass, with two ornate silvery-pewter handles on a silver tray, $75.
The chests, armoires, desks, chairs, tables, trunks and other pieces are well-made reproductions of the charming styles rooted in Mexican folk art. Prices are affordable: A secretary desk costs $235; a tall multidrawer lingerie chest, $300; a night stand, $129. Larger pieces, such as solid wood armoires, come in six different styles. Most are less than $800.
“What I want to have are unique pieces for a nice price and exceptional customer service,” Gregory says. “You can take something to your house and try it out, and if it doesn’t work, bring it back. “
Most exceptional are the mirrors from San Miguel Allende. The wide tin frames are exquisitely pierced and worked to depict angel themes, $65 to $110 each.
The shop is at 1509 Chicago Ave., Evanston. Call: 847-328-0995.