Maria Miká is a brand of decorative and fashion accessories based on the ethnographic Alto Minho. It is a passion of the natural born in Minho, in Viana do Castelo, Maria Lemos Costa, who revisits the traditions of her homeland with great creativity and innovation.
Tell me about your project, how did you come with this idea?
Maria Lemos Costa: I'm from Minho. I am of Viana and I participate in the procession every year and that's something that is already in my blood. I am passionate about the arts and I love the heats. My family had a store essentially of Vista Alegre and Viana dishes, so I have rooted these traditions. Because like I it so much I tried to create modern pieces based on the concepts both ethnographic and the Portuguese traditions adapted to today world.
You have also crocheted.
MLC: Yes, because all Portuguese households had a blanket in the house. They were made by our grandmothers and great grandmothers who did it with very dark colors. I tried to adapt them to today, with garish tones.
What kind of person buys these objects of decoration?
MLC: It is a kind of public that looks for me mainly at Christmas, to buy the hearts of Viana for the trees, as an ornament. I was the first person to adapt them for Christmas decorations. Then I went to the frames, followed by the pads and finally the crochets. It has been a gradual process. Then over the year I have hearts with lavender to put in the clothes drawers.
The drawings which you applied in the hearts are due to research or emerge from your imagination?
MLC: The colors are mine, the drawings I search them from the wardrobe of the wench, or traditional brides, there are several, and I just always pick a detail with a traditional base. The materials I use and their combination are a novel, for example, in the frames, the heart are never embroidered this way. I'll get various elements that I mix creatively.
