Under Tania Machado’s stewardship, Brazilian artisans are bringing their eco-friendly designs to the world
Jewelers may know Minas Gerais as the Brazilian state where the bulk of the country’s precious stones are mined (the name, in fact, translates to “General Mines”) but the region is also rich with talented artisans who have taken advantage of local materials to produce a range of arts and crafts distinguished by their respect for the earth.
Tania Machado
In 2001, Tania Machado recognized the need to promote these crafts — mostly home décor items made from seeds, ceramic, glass, fiber, wood, paper, soapstone and ironwork — to an international audience, thereby generating income for poor families while encouraging recycling and environmentalism. Thus, the EcoArts program was born. As an offshoot of a Brazilian nonprofit called Instituto Centro CAPE, which helps prepare artisans to sell their work abroad, EcoArts represents a collective of eight artisans, whose products are sold bearing a seal — IQS, or Sustainable Quality Institute — guaranteeing they are socially fair, ecologically correct and economically viable.
“Today, the whole world is worried about the environment, and recycling is well-respected by everyone,” says Machado, who is based in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais. “But in the case that the improvement of the economic situation of poor people is attached to the product’s good price, it’s even better.”
Among the artisans in the EcoArts stable is Maria Diniz. She uses coffee husks and grounds, rice husks and cardboard boxes to make decorative bowls. Leonardo Bueno makes furniture and household items by recycling the wood from shipping pallets, while Cristina Duarte recycles raw glass to fashion unique works of glass art.
In 2007, the program to which they belong exported more than $2 million of artistic handicrafts to the United States. (A similar program exists in Europe and is managed by a Lisbon-based company, Vitória Regia.)
The Brazilian government has been instrumental in nurturing EcoArts, whose existence is made possible through a collaboration between several organizations, including APEX, Brazil’s trade and investment promotion agency, and the Central Mão de Minas, a nonprofit aimed at helping artisans navigate the complicated world of exporting. Despite the economic downturn, Machado is optimistic that EcoArts will continue to thrive.
“We believe we have enormous growing potential,” she says. “There are 8.5 million artisans in Brazil. In the state of Minas Gerais there are 500,000, and only about 300 are currently exporting products to the USA. But in order to proceed we must continue looking for buyers. It’s necessary to adapt products, improve some of the technological processes for customs and trade barriers, and continue showing the creative work of the Brazilian people.”
Reduce, reuse, recycle The EcoArts collective promotes the work of Brazilian artisans who work with different recycled materials. Márcio Ferreira, for example, uses scrap iron to make his signature ants, while other artists work with glass, shown here in a delicate petal-like sculpture, or banana or coconut fibers, used to make decorative bowls.
