São Paulo – A group of women from Bonito, a Brazilian city renowned for its natural beauty, produces and exports handicraft inspired on the landscapes that surround them. They make towels, dishcloths, cushions, aprons and handbags with embroidery of local figures and plants and mainly of fish that live in the rivers of the region. The products are sold at a shop, in the centre of the city, and have already been exported to Europe.
The association responsible for developing the project is called "Bonito feito à mão" (Handmade Bonito) and includes eight women. According to the group’s vice president, Albertina Gesser Orben, exports over the last two years went to the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. To the Italians, however, shipments were bio-jewels, costume jewellery that the group makes out of vegetable raw material. According to Albertina, most of the sales – 80% – take place in the shop in Bonito, as the artists cannot supply orders made abroad or exports.
Albertina explains that the group wants to increase the number of artisans to produce more and also export. While that does not take place, however, orders above those sold at the "Bonito feito à mão" point of sale are only accepted if placed well in advance. Foreigners end up taking the items to their country when they visit Bonito on tourism and go to the shop to buy souvenirs.
The fish printed and embroidered by the artists are traditional local ones. The other elements of nature used by the artists vary. Currently, the artists, for example, embroider water plants, like lilies, common to the region, or Ipê, trees that may frequently be seen there. They never, however, stop using the fish. The price of the articles varies. An apron may cost 25 Brazilian reals (US$ 16). A handbag, more expensive, goes for 90 reals (US$ 56).
Albertina explains that before the association was established, each woman worked with handicraft individually. They only met to sell. In 2007, however, the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae) took stylist Renato Imbriosi to provide consultancy to the group and establish a joint project. "He said: ‘Let’s bring back granny’s times’. We loved the idea,” explained the vice president.
At the time, the initiative brought together 27 people. Then the group diminished. Imbriosi still has contact with the group, pointed out Albertina, and visits it sporadically. The association counts on the support of the Sebrae and of the Culture Secretariat of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul. Current production is around 200 items a month.
Contact
Telephone: (+55 67) 3255-1950
Site: http://bonitofeitoamao.wordpress.com/ (under construction)
E-mail: bonitofeitoamao@gmail.com
*Translated by Mark Ament
