University of Aveiro
Bucos, Cabeceiras de Basto, Portugal
41°34’22.741” N, 8°2’20.505” W
Bed Blanket Coat “Manta da Cama Coat” Design by Helena Cardoso handcrafted by the artisans Bucos Women of Casa da Lã group 2023
Wool with burel rags and natural silks rags Manual wool processing from shearing to yarn, tailoring and handloom weaving
107 cm length x 58 cm shoulder line width x 119 cm sleeve line width approx.
Helena Cardoso is a Portuguese designer and visual artist. Cardoso has worked since the late ‘70s, with several artisans specialising in different handmade techniques and materials in northern Portugal, especially traditional Portuguese crafts. Cardoso has been active in the areas of product design, fashion design, interior design, jewellery, social design and visual art. Regarding her work at villages, Cardoso officially started, in 1982, her partnership as a tutor with the Commission on the Status of Women –CCF (nowadays it is called CIG- Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality) and worked to support groups of women in underprivileged villages in northern Portugal until the present day.
A gallery of images of the exhibit item.
In 2010, Cabeceiras de Basto City Council invited designer Helena Cardoso to work with artisan women, resulting in a set of new contemporary pieces (some of which use industrial wool), while maintaining the traditional way of making them. The designer was inspired to create the Manta de Cama Coat, which uses ancestral weaving skills —the chequered pattern—, but replaces the colour palette (blacks, oranges, and browns) with a monochromatic one (white and black) with brightly coloured accents using rags of burel.
The designer has been developing artistic pieces and eclectic clothing using ancestral hand-weaving skills. The wool used for the coat’s warp comes from sheep from Cabeceiras de Basto, while the wool used for the weaving comes from Covilhã, because it has textural properties that are more suitable for contact with the skin. The wool from Cabeceiras de Basto’s octane rams is processed by hand at every stage, right up to spinning.
Weaving is an “ancient art common to almost all cultures. Weaving was born in the context of sedentarization and the need to cover the body, assuming from an early age a symbolic, social and economic character beyond the utilitarian” (Saber Fazer, N/A). “In rural areas, weaving was a subsidiary of farm work and was practised by women for self-consumption” (Perdigão, 2002). Weaving in Cabeceiras de Basto, as a rural village, was used for many home textiles, such as bedspreads, rugs and blankets. Thus, knowledge is repurposed for novel applications, diverging from conventional household utility to serve as practical attire suitable for outdoor and urban settings, thereby facilitating the transmission of insights from traditional rustic blankets to contemporary urban fashion designs.
Between the mountains of Cabreira and Marão, in an extensive valley that is more than 18 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide, right on the banks of the River Tâmega, lies Cabeceiras de Basto, one of the oldest and most historic municipalities in Minho. A land with a landscape in which the Minho and Trás-os-Montes coexist. This municipality is relatively isolated in terms of public transport access to the various urban centres, and can only be reached by car. This municipality inherits several houses, including manor houses, most of which date back to the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Casa da Lã is located in the parish of Bucos in the building of an old elementary school. Bucos is 11 kilometres north of Cabeceiras de Basto, 36 kilometres northeast of Guimarães and 46 km east of Braga. There is recurrent migration in this region, with people tending to emigrate in families to countries in Europe such as France, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, returning only at retirement age. The population is therefore characterised by age group, with a predominance of elderly people, as confirmed by the National Statistics Institute. It is the female population in this age group that has knowledge of wool and weaving.
Overall, in 2017, there were more women than men in the municipality, 52% of the population. With the integration of women into the labour market, there has been a decrease in the birth rate in the municipality, which, together with emigration, has resulted in a decrease in the population. We can also add that in terms of employment, women in this municipality are at a disadvantage, with 505 of the 800 registered job seekers in the municipality being women.
Cabeceiras de Basto, Bucos
Portugal
This is part of a PhD research that is being developed by Maria Bruno Néo with the supervisory team Prof. Luís Mendonça e Prof. Susana Barreto, under the FCT scholarship 2022.11272.BD in ID+ the Research Institute of Design, Art, Media and Culture.
References:
Fernandes, Isabel, Joaquim Cerqueira, Nuno Vieira Rato and Alice Bernardo. Mulheres de Bucos (cabeceiras de basto) trabalho da lã. Cabeceiras de Basto: Câmara Municipal de Cabeceiras de Basto 2012.
Fiadeiro, M. A. Património Rural Têxtil – Uma estilista na Serra. 1994.
Município de Cabeceiras de Basto. “Artesanato. Concelho de Cabeceiras de Basto”. Accessed September 21st, 2022.
https://cabeceirasdebasto.pt/turismo-artesanato
Município de Cabeceiras de Basto. “Casa da Lã – Museu das Terras de Basto”. Accessed September 21st, 2022.
https://cabeceirasdebasto.pt/museu-terras-de-basto-casa-da-la
Perdigão, Teresa. Tesouros do Artesanato Português. V. II. Lisboa: Verbo, 2022.
Saber Fazer. Tecelagem de lã. Programa Saber Fazer Portugal. Accessed February 23rd, 2024. https://programasaberfazer.gov. pt/arte/tecelagem-de-la
Schmidt, Luísa. “Arte Factos 1 – O linho A lã”. Expresso, Edição 125, 1994.
To learn more about this initiative or artisan:
Zet gallery interviews the designer Helena Cardoso
Marco Carvalho interviews the designer Helena Cardoso in Canal Macau https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsQ4SlghZFc
https://cabeceirasdebasto.pt/museu-terras-de-basto-casa-da-la