Can you tell us about your practice and how it has evolved in the last years?
I work mostly with textiles using different techniques like botanical dyeing, embroidery, appliqué and patchwork. Some days you might find me doing a repair commission for a client, or I’ll be working with a fashion designer on a collection; other days I might be developing art pieces or teaching workshops. My work is at the intersection of many disciplines, and regardless of the project, I try to focus and implement environmentally responsible practices.
When in 2018 I founded my studio, developing ceramic and textile jewellery and other objects, I wanted to create something with my hands. Over the years, I realized I had more to say and to contribute, and naturally my creative practice and output has shifted to a place where it feels more authentic.
How was it to come back to Lisbon to pursue your professional activities after some time abroad?
At first it was challenging, since I had been away for many years. I felt a bit out of place and disconnected in regards to my work. Coming from a thriving creative community, I feared that I would find a lot more obstacles in Lisbon, but I also wanted to discover how I could integrate my vision and what I had learned so far. I really focused on building community, and I’ve been really excited about connecting to so many creative people working in Lisbon right now. Growth has many challenges, but I found it has been crucial to stay true to my unique voice and to hold on to the opportunities that are aligned with my vision. Things have been happening quite organically here, with one connection naturally leading to another, one project opening doors to the next.
Can you share how your early experiences with sewing and traditional textiles in a multi-generational household shaped your approach to repair as both a practical skill and an artistic expression?
I grew up in a house with three generations. We were ten in total, including my grandparents, who filled my childhood with traditional stories, music, and crafts. Having that woven into my daily life from an early age, definitely shaped who I am and my practice today. My mother knitted, my aunt was often at her sewing machine, and my grandmother mended clothes. There was also my grandmother’s best friend, who used to spend summers with us. She knew a lot about textile techniques, like smocking (a particular decorative embroidery technique), for example.
She made clothes for us and our dolls. I was very curious about these objects and the process behind them, the movement of the hands, and what they could do. I watched them attentively and naturally started making things myself. When you see people around you making things, developing a skill, that becomes natural. The connection between my upbringing and repair hasn’t always been conscious, but in recent years I’ve found myself reconnecting more and more with my roots, and understanding that a lot of the values I pursue in my work have been influenced by my family. My grandmother repaired for practical reasons mostly, but I discovered that the needle and the thread are great tools for creative expression. Becoming familiar with the language of textiles, through colour, rhythm and composition, allows us to tell stories through that medium. At the moment, it’s wonderful to see more people embracing textile repair as an art form.
Your work emphasizes the circularity of objects and the act of repairing. How do you see repair as a counterpoint to overproduction and consumption, particularly within the context of the Portuguese design industry?
Repairing is a powerful skill that I wish were within everyone’s reach. It is important to realize first that we are facing a real challenge collectively, regarding overproduction and consumption, and ultimately waste. Then we often lack the knowledge or the accessibility to tools or places where we can repair our things. There are platforms like The Next Turn, for example, that are trying to change that by creating a map of repair services, accessible to everyone. The industry is shaped by what people need and look for, so you see services like cerzideiras (women who traditionally mended clothes) disappearing. We need a deep change within the system, so education from an early age is vital - not only to face the problem creatively, but to teach simple repair skills that have a big impact.
Within the context of the Portuguese Design Industry, I think we have the potential to look into our strong crafts heritage and rediscover ways to design for circularity, more in tune with nature. From a design perspective, it’s part of our responsibility and also our strength.
Repair and plant-based dyeing are central to your environmentally conscious practice. What challenges have you faced in adopting these methods, and how do you hope to inspire the broader Portuguese design community to follow?
I think the biggest challenge is how, from a collective point of view, we’ve been losing touch with the cycle of things - the process behind each object and their environmental impact. When there’s this disconnection from the origin of things, we can’t acknowledge the value in practices like repair or plant-based dyeing. Slow processes like these don't sit well in our fast-paced society, but I’m hopeful and I’m seeing changes not only in peoples’ lifestyles but also within the industry.
With repairing it’s hard to shift from a model where it’s easier to replace than repair, to a model where repairing is accessible and the natural thing to do. With plant based dyeing the biggest challenge is scaling it up and achieving consistency of results, which is required for certain projects. I hope that with my work I can inspire other creatives to have all stages of an object in mind, and to challenge themselves to create for circularity.
Your workshops at Artlier bring people together to explore repair and textile techniques. How important do you think spaces like Artlier are in reintroducing hands-on crafts that we’ve often lost touch with in modern society?
Spaces like Artlier are essential because they empower people with the knowledge and tools to make things with their own hands. Besides the creative and practical aspects of these hands-on-crafts, there are several mental and social benefits. From a repair point of view, there’s an emotional component when we care for something, we become authors and part of the story of an object. We are creating both value and impact; that is to be celebrated.
In your last exhibition at Artlier during LDW25, you used a series of iconic Portuguese chairs as a subject. Can you tell us a bit about your research about this topic? How often do you weave in cultural heritage into your practice?
Apart from another small personal project, this was the first time I incorporated elements of our cultural heritage into my work. The research for this project was done with Joana Fonseca Teixeira, who brought valuable insights into the selection, and Margarida Aires Mateus, who has had the experience of teaching furniture repair for over 20 years, and has seen many of these pieces in her workshop. I am interested in the stories of objects and how these chairs (and others) can spark memories and feel so familiar. This is a line of work I am excited to explore moving forward.