Newsletter September 2021

This digital showcase, with more than 300 thousand visitors and running from 1st July to 31st December, has 13 Artisanal Production Units in the Azores, allowing them a huge exposure in the international market and the promotion of their products and brands with new audiences. Adolfo Mendonça, Carolina Moreira, Cláudia Borges, Santo Amaro Regional School of Crafts, Fábio Oliveira, Isabel Silva Melo, Leonardes & Filho Lda, Maria João Silveira, Oficina Museu das Capelas, Romeu Bettencourt, Sara Schanderl, Silvia Teixeira and Zsombi Keresztes embraced this challenge, for 6 months, exhibiting their handicrafts in the NY Now Digital Market, thus promoting their products to a diverse group of experienced resellers and specialized buyers in search of highlights for their stores.

A sense of place is so evident in Azorean handicrafts. The region’s cultural heritage is rich and diverse because the Archipelago extends over 9 islands. Whether it’s Portuguese faience or straw necklaces, meticulously crafted 12-string guitars like furniture, or handcrafted leather, the talent pool is excellent. From recycled linen clothing to distinctive jewelry and home decor. Organic earthenware earrings inspired by sea urchins and anemones. Jewelry made from wheat straw or dragon leaf. Copper necklaces and earrings meticulously crafted with delicate fish scales. Shoes with a distinctive pleated look. Framed images of fluffy hydrangeas, abundant in the Azores.

At a time when the pandemic context makes it difficult and often stops face-to-face training, CADA reinvented its Hora do Ofício training project, adapting it to an online format.

At CADA’s Facebook page and the Youtube  channel, you can review all tutorial videos published so far, guided by artisans from all over the archipelago who demonstrate, step by step, the creation of a piece. You can also follow the launch of new Hora do Ofício Online sessions.