When I am asked ‘‘At what age did you learn to weave?’’ My memory becomes a fog. It is like asking me at what age I started crawling or when I said my first words: there is no clear memory - I just learned, at a young age, and grew up knowing and improving.
This is the victory of Esperança - Winner of the 2019 National Crafts Award - Innovation Category.
The Portuguese Prize for Handicrafts aims to promote the arts and crafts, distinguishing artisans who stand out for the excellence of their journey and the results achieved, whether in terms of traditional handicrafts or in the so-called contemporary handicrafts.
We won. Thanks to you, I was the winner of the 2019 Portuguese Craft Award in the Innovation Category. God knows what this means for us - more than we know ourselves.
When we submitted the application, we had no real sense of what that meant.
The years of dedication that our family has given to this art, represented in a single prize.
The weight that this award has for knowing that it has been gained with all our effort, perseverance and dignity that we struggle daily to give to this market.
Knowing it was fair.
We have no words.
We can only be grateful, even more, for being able to live this victory by your side.
GRATITUDE. 🙏❤