Shepherd's Wool Blanket

Feel the weight of the mountains in this rare, thickly woven wool blanket.

Long before the age of electric heaters, heated floors, and the globalization of synthetic fibers, shepherds and their families wrapped themselves in layers of natural wool, thickly woven, compact to withstand the cutting cold of the Guarda highlands (Beira Alta, Portugal), but also in the summer, because "what shields from the cold, shields from the heat."

It was called the Cobertor de Papa (papa blanket).

It still is, because the Associação O Genuíno Cobertor de Papa (The Genuine Papa Blanket Association) rescued the tools and the secrets of its manufacture from extinction just a few years ago. Traditional, handcrafted, thick, waterproof, warm, long-haired, woven on a roughly 300-year-old wooden hand loom, the oldest of its kind in the world.

We have Céu Reis to thank. She created the association and its workshop after the last factory in the region - where she had worked for 28 years - closed. Alfredo, Dulce, and Rosa Baía (Céu's mother) are also Papa blanket artisan volunteers whose process relies on their cooperation and complementarity, forming a team. Rosa Baía is over 91 years old. Her career as a fuller and warper spans eight decades, ever since she was a child of just 11.

It is heavy - you can feel its weight. Or is it the weight of history, of the mountains, of the harsh winters? Either way, it smells a little of the wind, a little of the fields, a little of a night by the fireplace. Some people use them as art. Others as heritage. Others simply sleep under them every night, just as their grandparents did.

And even today, it is the faithful companion of the shepherds, serving as a beacon for the flock, which, accustomed to its pattern, follows it instinctively.