Embroidery, wicker, the pointed carapuça cap, the bailinho, and the hands that built the terraces.
Almost nothing on Madeira is flat, so generations of islanders cut the slopes into poios, narrow terraces held by dry-stone walls, and carried water to them along the levadas. The landscape you photograph is handmade.
Madeira embroidery, fine white stitching on linen, has been made by women at home since the nineteenth century. Wickerwork from Camacha gave the island its baskets, its furniture and the sledges of Monte.
Traditional dress includes the carapuça, a small dark cap with a point, and the striped skirt of the flower sellers. At any arraial you will hear the bailinho, played with the brinquinho, a percussion pole hung with dancing dolls.
A tipSaudade is the Portuguese word for missing a place before you have even left it. Visitors ask for it more than any other word.
- CraftsMadeira embroidery and wickerwork
- The capcarapuça, with a point on top
- The dancebailinho da Madeira
At the end of the route, in Funchal, four artists draw whatever you bring back from the island: a place, a flower, a word, a set of coordinates.
The outline of the island
Madeira in a single line.