Huichol work in Tepic

It's hard not to love the beautiful bead work that the Huichol do.
Because it's so close to where many of them live, Tepic is a great place to shop for and see the work. Yes, there is beautiful Huichol work all over, but none as affordable as in Tepic.
The DIF office works with indigenous people all over the country. I don't know all of the ins and outs, but one thing that they do is encourage traditional crafts, and provide markets for them.
In Tepic, there are two DIF stores, chock full of great stuff, at amazing prices. Their stock varies dramatically depending on who has been in to buy. Twice, we have literally emptied one of their stores for sale on eBay.
OK, so why the posting? Last year we decided to explore more as to what was available. After going in circles, we finally were sent to the DIF store that is at the entrance of the government building. A doorway off of the store leads into the DIF offices for the Huichol.
In November, 2013, we left with them a ceramic heart with a skeleton on it. It was a good 16" long. We asked to have it beaded, and said we'd be back in February to pick it up. We decided to make no suggestions as to color, design, anything, but to let the artist make the decisions. We also had no idea as to the cost. How bad could it be?
We e-mailed several days for our arrival. Our contact wasn't available, but we were assured that it was very nice and ready for us.
WOW!!!!!!! Beautiful, gorgeous, special, personal. He added a peyote plant in the hands of the skeleton. He must have done it in wax, there was nothing like that on the original piece! It cost us a huge 700p. Amazing!
When we picked it up they encouraged us to bring more pieces in and to tell our friends about it. Forgot. If I had been thinking, I'd be posting a picture here.
This time we are dropping off two items: A wooden heart with a finial on the top, and a Rodo Padilla sculpture of a cat on a bicycle with an umbrella. It had fallen, and there is a chip on the underside of the umbrella.
With any luck, we'll drop them off tomorrow, and pick them up in Feb/March.
Tepic is a beautiful city, has a nice RV park, Los Pinos, and the taxi ride down town is very inexpensive. Any driver can drop you right in front of the DIF store in the government building, just a couple of blocks before the plaza that has the cathedral on it.