Clay Chimineas

WHAT'S WRONG WITH CLAY CHIMNEAS?

Clay chimineas have been around for many years. It wasn't until about 1999, 2000 that the popularity really took off. Then the mass merchants got there hands on the chimineas. WOW, and they difinetely got there hands on them. The chiminea was everywhere. Even the local grocery stores sold them, army navy stores, chimineas were just everywhere.

WHERE DID CHIMINEAS COME FROM?

MEXICO! Chimineas are a product of the Mexican cottage industry. That's right, the chiminea is made in cottages. Mexican families will construct large, huge kilns that will hold 200 or so chimineas at one firing. At first these Mexican families manufactured pots and various other clay products. Then along came the chiminea. Chimineas you burn a fire in them and flower pots you put dirt and flowers.
In the manufacturing process of creating anything made of clay you will get imperfections, cracks and at times pots will come out of the kiln in several pieces. Does the flower pot become trash? No it's patched back together, painted on the outside and sealed (sometimes) on the outside. No problem, the Mexicans are great artist of clay products. it's amazing what I have seen made of clay. Its possible to take a pot that's in piece and put it together and you would never know it. You can do this with chimineas as well. the problem here is you put a fire in chiminea not dirt and flowers.

CLAY CHIMINEAS FALLING APART???

YES! I have heard many stories. Many, Many Many stories about chiminea falling apart but it's not the issues today as it was a couple of years ago. The mass merchants have left the building! The Artist in Mexico that make chimineas, pot and other clay products are quality oriented but they are also business people as well. Many of these families were doing fine making the pots but then came this tidal wave, BAM it hit. The demand was so great that quality took a hit
because the issues now was demand. It takes an hour to patch a chiminea (in pieces) and make it look good as compared to 10 to 21 days to make a chiminea. Ship it! It looks good! No matter what it takes. and yes some bad chimineas were shipped, there's no denying it. The compounded problem here was not necessarily the quality as it was with quality control.

PEOPLE WERE IGNORANT!
Importers and direct buyers just didn't know what to look for in the chiminea. Quality control was a matter of it looking good. Looks good? Gotta be good. But when you put a fire in a cracked clay pot it will fall apart. If the clay was rushed thru the manufacturing process the chiminea will dissolve. Chimineas need different care then clay pots, sort of. All clay pots need certain care and maintence it's just more important with a chiminea because you are putting a fire in the chiminea.

THE MASS MERCHANT HAVE LEFT THE BUILDING!

The chiminea business has settled down and the mass merchants have started to move on. Some still carry them every once in a while but for the most part its slowed down. The demand on chimineas has decreased dramatically and this means the quality is great. Enough time has passed that every one KNOWS WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A GOOD QUALITY CLAY CHIMINEA from the Mexican Artist to the importer to the end retailer. The bad chimineas that were once shipped north to the U.S. of A. are now destroyed at the plant. The demand is not there so the artist can take more time to insure a good quality product.