Lusa Soul Necklace : Honourable Mention Award Portojoia 2012
Past, present and future come together through forms, materials and basic techniques of jewellery to represent the “Lusa Soul”.
The tiles are a testimony to the author's own life. In Gaia, where she grew up close to the extinct factory of Carvalhinho, which produced the decorative pieces that fill her home; in Oporto, where the tiles exposed in building walls and panels fascinate me in the same manner.
They bear witness to the glorious past of Portugal, and even to its present, rich in exchanges with other cultures. A country of people venturing into the seas, rummaging various continents, carrying the indelible signs of multiculturalism. From the Mudéjar tiles, which inspired the decoration of the National Palace of Sintra, and including the Italian majolica, developed in the Flanders and later produced autonomously in Portugal.
The golden silver in thread; the fisherman’s net in its different elements; the gold carving, another Portuguese tradition. The blue strings, colour of the sea, symbol of the Discoveries too, make up a link culminating in a golden anchor, last resort of the seafarers, symbol of fidelity, quietness, resolution. A metaphor for hope in the stormy days we are living. The everlasting promise of a bright future.
