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By Sérgio Carvalho, Ra-Ro co-founder · Authors
About 3 min read
What makes this bag so rare?
This bag is born from burel, the thick, hard-wearing wool cloth of Serra da Estrela that for centuries clothed shepherds against the cold of the mountain. Here, that same material takes on a new life: it becomes a piece to carry over the shoulder that holds, in its cut-out design, the memory of a tile. At the As Capuchinhas Cooperative, in Campo Benfeito, four artisans devote themselves to the meticulous cutting of the burel, shaping geometric patterns that seem to have stepped off an old wall.
Why does the pattern echo the Portuguese tile?
The design, created by Paula Caria, plays with raw and dark brown tones to compose geometric patterns that recall the Portuguese tile and its Arab legacy. The tile reached the Iberian Peninsula through Arab hands, and that heritage lives on in the repeated forms, the interlocking shapes and the symmetries we now recognise as deeply our own. By translating that visual vocabulary into burel, the bag brings two heritages together: the mountain cloth and the ceremony of the tiled wall.
How is it made, from loom to the artisans' hands?
It all begins on the manual looms, where the burel is woven with a density that only patient work can give. Then comes the cutting: the four artisans cut and compose each shape, fitting the raw tone into the dark brown until the pattern takes form. There is no automation at this stage, only hand, eye and time. Each bag is, for that reason, a small object of authorship, the result of repeated gestures that cross generations in the region of Campo Benfeito.
Why is a piece like this worth keeping?
To keep a Capuchinhas bag is to keep a small part of a knowledge at risk of vanishing. The burel endures, the patterns tell an ancient story and the work of the cooperative keeps alive hands that would otherwise fall silent. It is a useful piece for everyday life, but also a gesture of preservation: by using it, we help keep the looms beating and the tile, made of wool, travelling through the streets.
- Material: burel from Serra da Estrela, woven on manual looms.
- Pattern: geometric, in raw and dark brown, inspired by the tile and its Arab legacy.
- Making: cut by hand by four artisans of the As Capuchinhas Cooperative, in Campo Benfeito.
- Design: Paula Caria.
If you are looking for a piece that brings together tradition, design and a purpose of preservation, let this story carry you and discover the Saco de Azulejo Branco.
