I designed Mar bowls and cups to recognize the Portuguese cultural origins that arrived across the water. Living here in Portugal, I have learned that our history has been shaped by successive exchanges across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Neolithic farmers first crossed the Strait of Gibralter from North Africa in 6000 BC, followed by Phoenician and Carthaginian traders, Roman soldiers, and Umayyad settlers who remained for centuries. Olives, ceramics, language, and belief flowed back and forth. Portugal was never sealed off and later "invaded" — it was shaped by continuous connection. We see these influences in our words that are rooted in Arabic, in our tile work that descended from Islamic geometry, and in our farming techniques that are still practiced in the Algarve. Each Mar piece embodies these origins with pride, naming North African and Islamic contributions as foundational rather than foreign. Mar pieces are made with commercial clay and studio-mixed glazes.