Embroidery, a traditional home craft skill in Portugal, also represents one of the country's most popular forms of artistic expression. Madeira is one of Europe's leading centers of lace production. Throughout Portugal, small workshops and homes create linens with delicately laced borders and designs. Handkerchiefs, tablecloths, napkins, hand towels and cloth bags are just a few of the many different embroidered articles available in gift and craft stores, as well as chic boutiques in Lisbon and Oporto.
To a foreign visitor in Portgual, the azulejo tile soon becomes one of the most familiar Portuguese handcrafts. Builders decorate many urban walls with these colorful ceramic tiles, either in a traditional blue-white geometric or flora pattern, or as a composite portrait or landscape. Some azulejos are created individually by hand, while others are mass produced in ceramic factories. The fanciful azulejo mosaic is a common sight on private homes, office buildings, churches and storefronts, and as decoration on interior walls. Portugal also produces a wide range of craft pottery, with designs heavily influenced by Asian models brought back by the wide-ranging Portuguese explorers.
Woodcarvers have also endowed Portugal with a large family of craft items, one of the most familiar being the olivewood walking stick. Cork is a leading industry in Portugal, and cork trees also provide a popular material for makers of bags and hats; there are many specialists in original cork and olivewood carving in rural areas of the country. The wooden Barcelos rooster, painted in lively colors, has become the symbol of modern Portugal.
As a seafaring nation, the Portuguese have long had contact with sources of precious metals and gemstones in Asia and Africa. The country's jewelry makers work predominantly in gold and silver, and are known for the delicate filigree work of their earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings and other ornaments. Of all the Portuguese crafts, jewelry making has moved furthest into modern art and design, and artisans in this field show a striking contemporary imagination.
