Helene used to be a buyer for jewelry stores in the states so she mainly offers shopping/artisan studio tours however she easily accomodated my desire to NOT shop and instead indulged me with all the architectural detail I could stand. She's very knowledgeable, friendly and easy going.

There's a review on this site of a trip to Dolores Hidalgo - in which the writer apparently enjoys DH as much as I enjoyed the house and garden tour (in other words, not).

Visiting Dolores Hidalgo is sort of like visiting Brooklyn. There are great pottery studios and interesting churches and wonderful restaurants but you probably won't find them by yourself. The pottery making in DH isn't done in homes - it's not a quaint little sideline for this town - it's a huge business and is conducted like any huge business anywhere, behind closed doors. There are a few factory shops (I use factory loosely) if you know where to find them where you will not get a great price break but you do get to see things that aren't available anywhere else. I doubt that you'd find these places on your own as they are not on, or even near, the town square.

Helene, despite my no-shopping protestations, watched me shop in several of the pottery studios then gave me more architecture and history - and a great lunch of enmolodas (like an en-chila-da but with mole - that's why it's an en-mola-da). The ice cream that DH is famous for was terrible but the town square was full of sugar skulls and such for day of the dead.