Gift Brazil Gift Brazil » A collective of original Brazilian craft

An hour’s walk through the jungle from the small Rio de Janeiro coastal town of Paraty, an amazingly beautiful and peaceful beach only shared with a few locals and surfers can be found. Far from everything and close to paradise, the Praia do Sono (Sleep Beach, in Portuguese) is home to less than 70 families, including many women who are now working to establish a tradition in embroidery. Supported by Sebrae, the Brazilian service of support for small enterprises, the group “Bordadeiras da Praia do Sono” (“The Embroiderers from Sleep Beach”, in a literal Portuguese translation) made their first foray into embroidery in 2007 with the intention of supplementing the income of their partners, mainly fishermen or builders working in the region. Since then, the embroidery work from this tiny village is now gaining popularity across Brazil for its rustic and original themes, which represent the everyday lives of coastal

Digital inclusion is a topic really close to our heart at Gift Brazil. We believe that our project is not just about helping artisans to sell their products to the world, it also helps these people in remote locations to learn about the value that the Internet can introduce into their life. These people can enter the digitally included society with our help, but there are some strange things taking place in the digital world in Brazil at present. On Wednesday this week, the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, signed a new bill into law that guarantees online privacy and equal access rights for Brazilian Internet users. Called the Marco Civil da Internet, (also known  as the country’s “Internet Constitution”) this bill goes further, but is effectively a bill of rights for the public, setting out the way Internet Service Providers must behave and explicitly addressing questions around spying – this is

Cordel literature is a popular literary expression characteristic of the Northeast. The verse-packed booklets to inform and entertain are illustrated with a handmade process and are the result of a tradition that is over a hundred years old. Brought to Brazil by Portuguese colonizers, cordel literature is massively popular in the Northeast of the country -particularly in the states of Pernambuco , Paraíba , Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará – and combines a unique literary expression with an equally singular type of craft.  These little books were traditionally displayed in street newsagents on a string (cordel), hence the name “cordel literature.” The first cordel brochures found in Brazil appeared in the the nineteenth century and became popular in the Northeast due to the lack of reliable print media. The essence of cordel is its narrative verse-based structure about themes of relevance to the population, printed in small booklets in newsprint

At Gift Brazil we are aware that our organization does a lot of good things. We help artisans in remote regions reach a new market. We help them to learn new IT skills. And of course, our work on the ground in Brazil means that the customers can be assured they are getting genuine art and craft from Brazil – not just ‘Brazilian’ gifts made in a factory in Asia. But of course the organization still needs to make a profit. Profit is often considered to be something obscene by protestors or those who consider that only governments or not-for-profit organizations can do any good. Detail of handbag by Studio Fredolina from Vitoriano Veloso, Minas Gerais Well we know that Gift Brazil is doing a good job because we hear it direct from the artisans all the time and we don’t charge the artisans a single cent for all the help we give

Brazilian artisan and Gift Brazil collective member Decio de Carvalho is taking part in an exhibition in his hometown of Taubaté that is all about celebrating life and love. The event Arte & Vida (Art & Life, in Portuguese) is an initiative of the Instituto de Oncologia do Vale (IOV), a cancer institute based in the São Paulo state city of Taubaté, which aims at improving the quality of life of patients by showcasing the artworks at the hospital building. Carvalho is part of the famous Figureiros de Taubaté artisan group, as well as a teacher and activist in areas such as promoting inclusion of people with visual disabilities through art. The artisan’s collection of items for the exhibition includes various interpretations of the root of all of life’s emotions: love. Carvalho’s work in terracotta clay is inspired in his passions – folk characters and writers of the Paraíba Valley region in the south of

Today we got up thinking about rain, more specifically about umbrellas. Umbrellas are actually one of the most recognizable elements of craft from the northeastern state of Pernambuco. But you might be wondering – why on Earth are they thinking and writing about umbrellas – because we don’t associate Brazil with rain, only sunshine, right? Well, kind of. It has actually been a very dry winter down south, in the state of São Paulo –  in had been nearly two months since it rained  here in the mountains. But today, we woke up to the gentle sound of raindrops. Then finally…the much-needed rain started to pour down. OK, that’s a long enough preamble! Back to the colorful umbrellas of the Brazilian northeast. The umbrellas in the primary colors of blue, red, green and yellow, almost omnipresent in Pernambuco in handmade items and souvenirs, come from its presence in the northeastern state’s trademark dance, frevo.