Origin

The sourcing story

Yacotli's own story: where the obsidian comes from, who works it, and why real provenance — not a shiny import — is the whole point. The myth and history of the smoking mirror itself live in the Journal; this page is about ours.

How it's made

From volcanic glass to mirror

Every Yacotli mirror is worked by hand from raw obsidian sourced near Teotihuacán. Five stages take it from a rough slab of volcanic glass to a finished scrying surface.

  1. Cutting the raw slab — It begins as a block of raw obsidian — black volcanic glass — cut from the source near Teotihuacán.
    01Cutting the raw slab. It begins as a block of raw obsidian — black volcanic glass — cut from the source near Teotihuacán.
  2. Working it into sheets — The slab is processed down into flat, even sheets of obsidian.
    02Working it into sheets. The slab is processed down into flat, even sheets of obsidian.
  3. The prepared sheets — Cut and processed, the sheets are ready to become mirrors.
    03The prepared sheets. Cut and processed, the sheets are ready to become mirrors.
  4. 04Cutting the mirrors. Each mirror is cut from a finished sheet.
  5. 05Shining the mirrors. The face is hand-polished to the deep, dark sheen that turns glass into a mirror.

The fuller story — the workshop and the artisans by name, the raw material, and Yacotli's approach to this heritage as living culture rather than costume — is being written.

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