Francisco Eugénio
Born in a pottery
He was born in the Moncarapacho maternity in 1958, but it’s as if he came into the world in the pottery. Francisco Eugénio represents the fourth generation of potters in his family. “Clay was my Playstation”, he explains. As a child he would go in the mule carts to fetch the raw clay, which he would then help to knead. “I loved to get my hands in the earth”, he recalls. It seems that he inherited this connection to the earth, transforming it into a love his lifelong. 50 years on, he is unable to hide the passion he still feels when he touches clay and sits at the wheel. “When you like what you do, it’s wonderful; it’s pure magic; it’s giving life and shape to the clay, synchronising the movements of your foot and the wheel and making it happen,” he explains. He enjoys the exchange of ideas resulting from contact between designers and craftspeople, saying “if there is one thing I like, it’s being able to materialise the ideas they bring to me.” He believes that pottery has a good future ahead of it, as there are many people wanting to learn the art.
