S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The artisan Monica Carvalho, from Rio de Janeiro, expected nothing but rest from that Carnival in Lavras Novas, in the state of Minas Gerais. Unwittingly, she returned home with a new career inside her luggage. The holder of a degree in Language, she used to teach English and do translations, but she would soon live off her own art. Since 1998, she makes decoration accessories and items using natural raw materials, especially seeds, in her atelier. In addition to selling in Brazil, Monica ships her products to the United Arab Emirates, France and England. Her plan for 2012 is to sell even more overseas, in particular in the Arab world. <\/p>\n
An entrepreneur who started creating \u201cat her home porch\u201d and selling \u201cto her students,\u201d she now makes items such as cushions, sculptures, candlesticks, lighting fixtures, pictures, furniture, rings, earrings, purses and necklaces, among others. Everything is adorned with seeds such as tucum\u00e3, assai and phytelephas, to name a few. Add to those wood, stones, natural fibres, flax, silver and iron, for instance. \u201cThe important thing is to combine materials and work sustainably,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
To that end, all raw materials are taken from government-approved extraction areas. \u201cIn these areas, care is taken to extract only one third of seeds each season, and so forth,\u201d says Monica.<\/p>\n
The artist works from her atelier in the Peixoto neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, with the help of two fixed employees and a network of external collaborators. She also participates in some social projects, such as creation in partnership with inhabitants of Morro de Santa Marta, also in Rio.<\/p>\n
The fruits of the artisan\u2019s and her aides\u2019 labour arrived in foreign land by means of a representative hired to promote the items abroad. It was thus that the products reached the stores of British designer Eskandar in countries such as the Emirates, France and England. According to Monica, exports already account for 30% of the atelier revenues.<\/p>\n
The target of growing in the international market includes the Arab market. \u201cWe know that is where the money is,\u201d says the artisan. \u201cAnd we are also aware that those markets place great value on elaborate artisanal work such as mine,\u201d she says, with all attention turned to the potential that her Arab clientele holds.<\/p>\n
Contact <\/b> <\/p>\n
Monica Carvalho Atelier
Telephone: +55 (21) 2547-9989
Site: www.monicacarvalho.com.br<\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Artisan Monica Carvalho, from Rio, sells decoration items and accessories to the Emirates, France and England. She plans to grow by investing in the Arab world. Natural materials are her trump card.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-economy"},"wps_subtitle":"Artisan Monica Carvalho, from Rio, sells decoration items and accessories to the Emirates, France and England. She plans to grow by investing in the Arab world. Natural materials are her trump card.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}