1VIMPorto, Portugal
Why azulejo tiles come from Porto
The blue tiles on Porto's facades have been painted the same way since the 1700s. Here is what makes a real azulejo, and how to buy one from the people who still make them.
[20]Stories
What local shops are making
Shops share what they make, where they make it and how. 1VIM writes about the crafts behind them.
1VIMKyoto, Japan
Kiyomizu-yaki, the kilns of Kyoto
Twelve centuries as the imperial capital left Kyoto with the densest concentration of living craft in Japan. Kiyomizu-yaki ceramics are the proof you can hold.
1VIMOaxaca, Mexico
Barro negro, the black clay of Oaxaca
The black pottery of San Bartolo Coyotepec gets its shine from burnishing with a quartz stone, not from glaze. Here is how it is made and how to bring a piece home.
1VIMKashmir, India
Pashmina, what the word actually means
Most of what is sold as pashmina is not. Real pashmina is the winter undercoat of the Changthangi goat, hand spun and hand woven in Kashmir. Here is how to tell.
1VIMSakai, Japan
Sakai knives, six hundred years of edges
Ninety percent of Japan's professional chef knives come from one city. Sakai's forges have been drawing out steel since the samurai stopped needing swords.
1VIMMurano, Italy
Murano glass, the island that kept a secret
Venice exiled its glassmakers to one island in 1291 and forbade them to leave. Seven centuries later the furnaces are still lit, and most glass sold as Murano never saw them.
1VIMMarrakech, Morocco
Marrakech leather, tanned the eleventh century way
The tanneries at Bab Debbagh have cured hides in stone vats for nine hundred years. Babouche slippers and poufs made from that leather age the way modern leather cannot.
1VIMAccra, Ghana
Kente cloth, the fabric that carries names
Every kente pattern has a name and a meaning, woven four inches at a time in Bonwire. The cloth on a graduation stole has a four hundred year old grammar behind it.
1VIMReykjavik, Iceland
Lopapeysa, the sweater Iceland knits in the round
Icelandic sheep have not been crossbred in a thousand years, and their wool makes a sweater that works in weather that stops everything else. Here is why a real lopapeysa is knit, not sewn.
1VIMJaipur, India
Jaipur block print, carved teak and steady hands
A Sanganer bedsheet passes under a carved wooden block hundreds of times, each strike lined up by eye. Here is how to tell hand block print from a screen printed copy.
1VIMBukhara, Uzbekistan
Suzani, the embroidery brides carried across the Silk Road
In Bukhara a suzani was begun at a daughter's birth and finished for her wedding, panel by panel, by many hands. The stitches still carry sun discs and pomegranates.
1VIMChiang Mai, Thailand
Celadon, the green glaze of Chiang Mai
The crackled green of Thai celadon comes from wood ash and iron, fired blind at over 1,200 degrees. The Lanna kilns around Chiang Mai never stopped making it.
1VIMCusco, Peru
Cusco weaving, the cloth that predates the Inca
In the villages above Cusco, weavers on backstrap looms turn alpaca fibre and cochineal red into cloth whose patterns are older than the empire that made the city famous.
1VIMAntigua, Guatemala
Huipil, the blouse that names a village
A Maya weaver's huipil tells you where she is from before she says a word. The patterns are village signatures, woven on the same backstrap looms as a thousand years ago.
1VIMFlorence, Italy
Florence leather, bound in the Oltrarno
Across the river from the Uffizi, workshops still vegetable-tan leather and marble paper by floating pigment on water, the way they did for the Medici.
1VIMOaxaca, Mexico
Alebrijes, the dream creatures of Oaxaca
A fever dream in 1936 gave Mexico its spirit creatures. In the villages around Oaxaca they are carved from copal wood and painted point by point, one hair-thin brush at a time.
1VIMBali, Indonesia
Celuk silver, the village that works in grains
In Celuk, near Ubud, silversmiths cover a ring in hundreds of tiny silver spheres and fuse them on without solder. The technique is called jawan, and it is why Balinese silver looks like nothing else.
1VIMPorto, Portugal
Cork, the bark Portugal harvests every nine years
The cork oak is never cut down. Its bark is stripped by hand every nine years and grows back, which is why a cork bag from Porto is one of the most honest materials you can buy.
1VIMBukhara, Uzbekistan
Ikat, the cloud cloth of the Silk Road
Uzbek dyers call ikat abrbandi, cloud binding: the pattern is tied and dyed into the silk before a single thread is woven. That is why the edges blur like weather.
1VIMAccra, Ghana
Krobo beads, the glass Ghana melts back into colour
In the Krobo hills east of Accra, broken bottles are ground to powder, layered into clay moulds and fired into beads that have carried meaning at births, weddings and funerals for generations.
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