Today Lisa and Maia facilitated a workshop at Café Igaraí. I wrote about it last time, but Café Igaraí is a group of women artisans in the town of Igaraí, a few miles from the Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza, about 1000 people. Some of the women who work and live on the farm also take part in the group: Rita, Rosangela, Roberta, and others who I don’t necessarily remember. Claudia, who used to manage the farm, co-founded the group with Silvia, a friend Tomás and the designer Renato Embroísi. Here is the story as Silvia told it to me. Embroidery, crochet, and other artisanal crafts are very traditional in this area of Brasil (and many others). In 2006, Tomás connected the designer Renato Embroísi with Silvia and Claudia. Renato is more of a community organizer than
... read more