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Maria Cremilde

Maria-Cremilde

THE PALM LEAF
ARTIST

Dona Cremilde represents the hospitality of rural folk in the municipality of Loulé. Small in stature but immense in humility and wisdom, she believes that you can always learn and do things better. She strives to do so constantly. When she was young she would watch the women in her home weaving palm leaves, sewing them and producing “balsas” or “ceiras” (baskets), panniers, mats and hats. “I became so obsessed with that material!… When my grandmother went out to do something, I would go and fiddle with it and try to make some of it…,” she recalls.

At 45 she attended a course to learn the art of palm and esparto grass weaving. A dream she had always had and which became part of the reality of her life from that moment. But this craftswoman doesn’t restrict herself to reproducing tradition. She combines her talent for sewing and her endless curiosity to blend techniques and materials and thus invent delicate objects that only come into being through love and patience.

TASA Project – Ancestral Techniques Current Solutions
  • SPONSOR:
    CCDR
  • PROJECT MANAGEMENT:
    ProActive Tur
  • SUPPORT:
    Algarve 21