1. Portuguese ceramic brand Bordallo Pinheiro’s new Amazônia collection

Portuguese ceramics brand Bordallo Pinheiro and NGO Ecoarts Amazônia have collaborated on a lush botanical collection of functional art that celebrates the Amazon.

Bordallo Pinheiro was founded in 1884 by Portuguese journalist, caricaturist and sculptor Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro. In creating the brand’s distinctive tableware and ornaments, he focused predominantly on flora and fauna, capturing his subject matter in a lively and whimsical way that has garnered a cult following. More than a century on, the highly collectable ceramics continue to be produced with little mechanisation. The traditional techniques, passed down through generations of ceramic artists, allow for the texture, colour and variance of nature – and the handmade.

The brand’s contemporary pieces remain true to its founder’s interests and aesthetic, as evidenced in the Amazônia collection, created in collaboration with Ecoarts Amazônia, a Brazilian NGO. The inspiration for the range came from the book ViagensPhilosophicas ("Philosophical Travels") by Brazilian naturalist Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira, who undertook an extensive journey across the interior of the Amazon Basin in the 18th century to catalogue the agriculture, flora, fauna and inhabitants of the forest. Likewise, Bordallo Pinheiro’s handcra“ed collection – including tactile bowls, platters and vessels – evokes the unique textures, colours and shapes of the Amazon rainforest.

A shared goal of the collaboration is to celebrate and preserve environmental, cultural, social and scientific heritage. A portion of proceeds from the Amazônia collection will go to the reforestation of the Amazon’s

Mato Grosso area, where Ecoarts Amazônia operates, by planting indigenous fruit trees in the cities, rural areas and indigenous villages of this region. Bordallo Pinheiro opened its first South African flagship store at 7 Bree Street in the Cape Town CBD at the end of 2019. Locals can also purchase the collectable ceramics online. bordallopinheiro.com

ABOVE The striking Bordallo Pinheiro Amazônia collection of tableware and ornaments employs texture and colouration to interpret and reproduce flora found in the Amazon Basin.