Bom Lisboa!

Bom dia, Bom Lisboa! I arrived yesterday in beautiful Lisbon, and so excited to be here!

I’m here in Portugal to do three things: see historic rugs first hand; learn from the pros (in Arraiolos, where literally half of the adult population of the town is directly involved in making this rugs); and write a book/ graph patterns from the historic rugs, given that the only book ever written in English about how to make these rugs has been out of print for the past 30 years.

While I'm here, I'll be visiting the museums in Lisbon, the palaces in Queluz and Sintra, Arraiolos - the home of Tapetes Arraiolos manufacturing, distributors in Lisbon and Mira de Aire, and Rua de Relvas, the home-turned-museum of a private collector who has the largest collection of Tapetes Arraiolos in the world.

Yesterday I visited the National Tile Museum  (Museu National de Azulejus). Many rugs are called Tapetes Azulejos because the patterns have been taken directly from the patterns on the tiles. These tiles have been used to decorate both the interior and exteriors of homes in Portugal for hundreds of years. In fact, some patterns of azulejos are laid out in a pattern called "tapetes." (Pictures coming soon!)

Some of the earliest tiles in the museum date back to the 15th century, and Arraiolos rug-making dates back to at least the 16th century. Coincidence? Maybe. In any case, the two industries have been closely related when it comes to pattern design. I took a ton of photos and look forward to graphing them for use as Tapetes Arraiolos patterns. Stay tuned, I'll post some of the patterns on this site!