São Paulo – Baskets, handbags, earrings, bracelets and mandalas. These are some of the products that Brazilian artisan Maria de Lourdes Amado is producing to take to Algeria, where the 2nd Pan-African Cultural Festival should take place, from July 5th to 20th. This is the first time that Maria de Lourdes is going to participate in a fair in an Arab country. "Expectations are very great. It is moving to participate in an event like this," said the artisan.
The differential of the art made by Maria de Lourdes, who had the help of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae) to begin her business abroad, is in the raw material used: golden grass, a natural fibre that grows in the Brazilian states of Tocantins, Bahia, Goiás, Maranhão and Piauí. "I do not use machinery for production. It is all done by hand," she said.
According to the artist, the culture of weaving and sewing the golden grass runs in her family. "It goes from mother to daughter," she says, explaining that her daughter helps her in production. "At the time of my great-grandmother, the grass was sewn with a thorn. Now we use needles," added the artisan, who is proud of preserving this Brazilian-Indian culture. "The art is the same, but we are modernizing through time," said Maria de Lourdes, who also started replacing buriti silk for normal thread for environmental preservation.
Last year, Maria de Lourdes participated in a fair abroad for the first time, in India. "It was a great success. The products were very well accepted," said the artisan, who has her products sold in France, Japan, Italy and the Untied States. According to her, shipments are not regular, but orders always arise.
The artisan currently has a team of 16 helpers for production of items. "When an order arrives, we share the work," she said, adding that her organisation does not have a specific monthly production volume. "We produce according to the orders," she said. In one month, the group produced as much as 1,000 items. "We do not work on volume, but on quality," she added.
The average time for production of an item is three to four days. In the case of a mandala, for example, which Maria de Lourdes also decorates with Brazilian stones, like onyx and crystals, takes four days. For production, the artisan buys golden grass and piassava (another kind of fibre) from Bahia and stones from Goiás.
Apart from decorative items, like fruit baskets, tablemats, boxes, lampshades, mandalas and handbags, Maria de Lourdes also works with costume jewellery and hats. Her handicraft is already present in several shops in Brazil. Most of the contacts with international buyers took place at events in the domestic market, but Maria de Lourdes believes there are great opportunities abroad. "I participate in fairs to show my culture. The culture of my people," she said.
Contact
Maria de Lourdes
Site: www.capimdourado.net
*Translated by Mark Ament
