HEAD CERAMIC SCULPTURE BLACK

“Back in the day, we worked hard, but we didn’t make enough money to eat. Our ware was too cheap, they had no value in the market. Since we started making different pieces, our life has changed. I feel fulfilled. I never thought this craft would allow me to get to where I am.”

Before Cida Lima was an artist named by the Brazilian government as a Master of Artisanal Craft, an honor bestowed on few, she was a 7-year-old girl patiently learning to work clay in her grandparents’ rural home. The Lima family made caboclo ware by trade, a type of pottery traditionally made by indigenous Brazilians. Once her blind grandfather prepared the clay, Cida and her grandmother shaped it together. Every week, Cida and her grandmother journeyed to the market in the town of Belo Jardim, their wares balanced carefully on their heads.

Cida went on to provide for her four children as a ceramicist, selling her caboclo ware in bulk and barely making ends meet. Everything changed when she met the Brazilian artist Ana Veloso. Ana saw an untapped artistic genius in Cida and pushed her to experiment. Cida started bringing her own designs to life, inspired by the artifacts of her childhood—like the dolls she made for herself as a little girl in her grandparents’ workshop. Cida’s now-famous heads are highly sought out in Brazil among high-end art circles.

Cida’s ancient knowledge of caboclo ceramics lives on in her shop of 8 clay workers, who have learned every step of the process from Cida. They take 6 days to treat the clay and remove impurities, 15 if it rains. Then in 7 days of handiwork, without molds or wheels, ceramic heads take shape under Cida’s watchful eye. Cida’s hands still touch every piece that bears her shop’s name.