Portuguese tapestry expert keeps the tradition alive in Macau

Isabel Fernandes pictured sewing a carpet

Arraiolos carpets have been around in Portugal since the 16th century and are now also becoming popular in Macau. A locally based Portuguese woman who grew up producing such rugs with her family brought the practice over to Macau hoping to preserve her family’s heritage.
Vera Fernandes, who moved to Macau in 2011, brought the Portuguese traditional tapestry into the region three years ago, starting up the project Handmade Arraiolos with the sole intent of keeping her parents busy, as she had convinced them to move to Macau with her.
In collaboration with Casa de Portugal, Fernandes and her mother, Isabel Fernandes, hold weekly tapestry workshops. Isabel Fernandes used to have two ateliers in Portugal together with her late husband and expertise on reconstructing old Arraiolos carpets.  Vera mainly manages the promotion of the traditional tapestry while Isabel is keener on recreating and creating the traditional tapestry in the region.
Most of Handmade Arraiolos workshops students are Macanese. “It’s good because it feels that people want to know more about [the tradition of] Portugal,” Vera Fernandes told the Times.
She says that the main purpose of the project is not business related, because they would prefer to set up exhibitions of their works outside the region.
“It’s not something that we’re going to open [and do it as] a business because this art has been in our family for so many years.”
Fernandes said that most of their clients are locals or from the mainland, and that the number of people attending her workshops is increasing.
Although she explained that Arraiolos (the name of a village in Portugal) tapestry is similar to cross-stitch, she stressed that there are specific techniques that make the production unique.
Fernandes also admitted that there have been challenges in sharing the techniques to those attending the workshops since there are similar types of works done in China.
“In China they do it without technique […] and we teach our students to understand the difference in the materials,” she explained, adding that all the materials they use are imported from Portugal.
Fernandes said that some of the workshop’s students currently make and sell Arraiolos carpets, something that she considers very rewarding.
“This is something that we’ve passed on through generations. […] We teach our students to share the image and culture of Portugal,” she said.
Fernandes admitted that they do not make a substantial amount of money from selling their work and holding the workshops.
“We drive it with [our] hearts, not with the goal of making a fortune out of it. It’s something that I don’t want to die in our family,” she stressed. “It’s part of our origin. My kids are growing up here but in the end, we’re still Portuguese, so I try to push them a little bit into their roots.”
Fernandes believes that the region’s education system should bring back home economics lessons to local schools. “It’s incredible because some people who come to our classes don’t even know how to put the wool inside the needle,” she said.
She stressed that such activities should still be taught in school because they are the “basic things in life.”
“There’s such a lack of this kind of knowledge [nowadays] that schools should be teaching,” she noted. Lynzy Valles

Isabel Fernandes, Vera Fernandes and other family members