Santa Luzia bowls are designed in memory of the women in my family who lived in small lava rock homes for hundreds of years on the island of Pico. They descended from a mix of Portuguese and Flemish settlers, people who had been forced to convert from Judaism to Catholicism, and enslaved North Africans. Some left the phyllox-stricken Azorean vineyards for the promise of the gold rush in California. Vovó’s mother followed the love of her life to Brazil but came back to Pico when he died. After a short time, she followed others to Hanford, California with her two daughters and one son. I designed these pieces use a range of commercial clays, studio-mixed glazes, and bramble ash glazes. Some are wood fired and others are fired in an electric kiln. Together, they represent the courage of women to survive many difficult and harsh conditions for the sake of the next generations.

* Pico Island is one of the Azores Islands, which are an archipelago of nine islands sitting 1400 km to the west of Portugal.

**all pieces are for sale in my Lisbon studio and store.