section_path: Economy/Crafts and trades
section_name: Crafts and trades
paragraph_text: Crafts and trades
  
  The excess supply of food products allowed a significant portion of the Aztec population to dedicate themselves to trades other than food production. Apart from taking care of domestic food production, women weaved textiles from agave fibers and cotton. Men also engaged in craft specializations such as the production of ceramics and obsidian and flint tools and of luxury goods such as beadwork, featherwork, and the elaboration of tools and musical instruments. Sometimes entire calpollis specialized in a single craft, and in some archeological sites large neighborhoods have been found where- only a single craft specialty was practiced.
  
  The Aztecs did not produce much metalwork but did have knowledge of basic smelting technology for gold, and they combined gold with precious stones such as jade and turquoise. Copper products were generally imported from the Tarascans of Michoacan.