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| Aliança Artesanal Cooperative (Vila Verde - Minho) |
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Linen weaving and embroidery were very widespread female activities in the traditional societies of rural Portugal. This was a way of occupying one’s free time and, from a very young age, girls produced items, which, apart from the utilitarian value, had a social and semiological value. In the Alto Cávado (Northern Portugal), for example, the “lovers’ handkerchiefs” were finely embroidered items of linen with decorative motifs and poetic verses that the young girls wrote and offered to the love of their life. To mark their agreement, the chosen one would then wear the handkerchief around his neck for the next few days and couples and marriages were thus formed. This old tradition (17th century) is still a symbol of the region’s cultural identity. The "Aliança Artesanal" (Craft Alliance) cooperative, created in Vila Verde in 1988, comprises craftswomen oriented in particular towards embroidery and the "Covide Social and Crafts Center", is more involved in the rediscovery of traditional linen processing and weaving. These two structures benefit from several public aid schemes, which have enabled them to develop. In 1988, two training courses financed by the ESF were organized, which enabled the number of craftswomen to considerably increase. The tutors were women from the co-operative and Social Center. The main activity of the Craft Alliance was therefore the recovery of designs and the manufacture of “lovers’ handkerchiefs”. Thus, in 1993, the training actions for young women were increased, whilst others were organized for already experienced crafts-women. The idea was to help the women design “modern” linen clothes by incorporating motifs taken from the lovers’ handkerchiefs. Since then, the cooperative has broadly diversified its market niches and its marketing methods, thus guaranteeing the viability of its members’ activities. An operation to recover old drawings has been systematically carried out, in particular from photographs taken from ethnographic works. These motifs have been reworked and diversified, particularly in terms of colour. New clothes and other articles of everyday use (curtains, tablecloths, carpets, etc.) are designed, integrating the traditional motifs of the “lovers’ scarves”. All of these products are presented in a permanent exhibition area within the cooperative. The "Aliança Artesanal" Cooperative is defined her own in the following ones: "We are alive stones of the Green Earth of this Green Minho. Through the times, we have been coming to grow in the space and in the tradition We sought, We looked, We kept, We studied, We grew, We are part of the earth, of the wind, of the seeds and of the stones that roll in the small rivers. We are the weaver's loom, the needle and the linen with that embroidered this green Minho". |
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Sweetheart´s Favour 4 Sweetheart´s Favour (Provided by CRAT, Regional Center of Tradicional Arts) |
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Sweetheart´s Favour 6 Sweetheart´s Favour (Provided by CRAT, Regional Center of Tradicional Arts) |
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Sweetheart´s Favour 10 Sweetheart´s Favour (Provided by CRAT, Regional Center of Tradicional Arts) |
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