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By Sérgio Carvalho, co-founder of Ra-Ro · View profile
About 3 min read
The phone should have killed off paper diaries by now. It has a calendar, reminders, alarms, it syncs with everything. And yet diaries are still here. Stubborn. This one has one more reason to stay: it comes wrapped in a shepherd's blanket.
The Cobertor de Papa Diary is a paper diary with a cover in Cobertor de Papa, the traditional woollen blanket of the highlands of Guarda, in the Beira Alta, made in the workshop of O Genuíno Cobertor de Papa, founded by Céu Reis, where her mother, Rosa Baía, still weaves blankets at the age of 91.
What is Cobertor de Papa
Cobertor de Papa is a blanket of natural wool, woven thick and dense: heavy, waterproof, warm and long-piled. Layers of these were how the shepherds of Guarda and their families got through the biting cold of the highlands, long before electric heaters and synthetic fibres.
On the cover of this diary, the wool does the same job it always has. It keeps you snug. The days are wrapped in wool, smelling a little of wind, a little of the fields, a little of a night by the fire.
There's a certain irony in this. The same cloth that shielded shepherds from the mountain cold now shields weeks, meetings, birthdays and shopping lists. The contents change, the care remains. And the wool won't let itself be forgotten: it's heavy in the hand, it has texture, it asks for a slower gesture when you open the diary.
Each cover is a piece of hand-woven blanket, so every diary is different. That's why the Ra-Ro Index rates it as Unique.
The human factor
Céu Reis worked for 28 years in the last factory in the region. When it closed, she could have changed course. She set up an association and a workshop. Her brother and friends came to work with her. And her mother, Rosa Baía, never actually stopped: she started weaving blankets at 11 and her career as a weaver now spans eight decades.
Eight decades. It's hard to read that and not do the maths on your own life.
Carrying on a craft when the factory closes is a choice, with the freedom and the responsibility that come together. Céu Reis chose to stay and to make. Cobertor de Papa still exists because someone decided not to let it end.
A better experience
A Cobertor de Papa diary doesn't open silently on a screen. You set it on the table, you feel the wool, you write by hand. It's a different way of organising time, slower and, I suspect, more honest. What you write by hand tends to stay written in your head too.
Why does a paper diary survive the phone? Maybe out of nostalgia. Or maybe because writing by hand still forces us to decide what deserves to be there. That's the question we might ask ourselves.
The phone reminds us of things. The diary reminds us of who made them. My advice is simple: start next week with your hand on the wool.
Frequently asked questions
What is Cobertor de Papa?
It's a traditional natural wool blanket from Guarda, in the Beira Alta, woven thick and dense, warm and long-piled. Shepherds used it to face the cold of the highlands.
Who makes the Cobertor de Papa Diary?
The O Genuíno Cobertor de Papa workshop, founded by Céu Reis, where her brother, friends and her mother, Rosa Baía, a blanket weaver since the age of 11, all work.
Why does the diary have a wool cover?
The cover is made of Cobertor de Papa, the same traditional blanket used by the shepherds of Guarda, which makes every diary a unique piece.
Why is this diary so rare?
Cobertor de Papa is made by very few hands. Céu Reis's workshop was born after the last factory in the region closed and keeps an endangered weaving tradition alive.
