Botica Amano

Barcelos · Portugal

Alexander Stadter

“We chose Barcelos over bigger factories in the south so we can talk through every detail with the makers.”

Alex and Sílvia design Botica Amano and have the pieces made a few minutes down the road. He came from Germany after years in the shoe industry and stayed; she was born and raised in Barcelos and came to the label from psychology. Every production partner sits within 25 kilometres of their base, close enough that the two of them are regularly on the workshop floor. The vase workshop is a family business of six, two of them rodistas who raise every shape on the wheel. Batches stay small on purpose.

I have three questions for you, and something in return.

Three questions.

Selected pieces

BOTICA AMANO Ceramics · Barcelos, Portugal

Clay from up the road

Botica Amano makes stoneware tableware and vases by hand in Barcelos, northern Portugal, using clay from the area around the workshops. Alex and Sílvia run it as a couple: he arrived from Germany, she was born in the town.

Alex and Sílvia design every piece themselves, then place the making with small traditional workshops around Barcelos, a different one for each craft and none more than a few minutes away. Keeping those workshops working, the ones that still exist in the area, is as much the point of the label as the pieces themselves. The clay comes out of the same ground, so the tableware is made of the place that makes it.

Runs are small. Offcuts and flawed pieces go back into the clay where they can. The packaging is recyclable and biodegradable, and plastic is kept out wherever they can manage it.

Two readings of the same clay

CAMPO is the more reserved of the two tableware collections, contemporary shapes under restrained glazes. RAW takes the opposite route, a matte finish that stops short of the edges, so the sides of each plate and bowl show the material as it is. Both lines carry the same four pieces: small plate, large plate, muesli bowl, pasta plate. RAW costs more than CAMPO in every one of them.

Vases with their own names

Seven shapes carry the vase line: Bola, Zig Zag, Cântaro, Clássica, Onda, Tulipa, Oliva. Each comes out of the same workshops and the same clay as the tableware.