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The Depository documents 35 techniques in Brazil; by risk level: 3 critically endangered, 3 endangered, 29 vulnerable. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
The stretching of a knotted mesh — structurally identical to an actual fishing net — over a frame (bastidor) or grid, then filling it with colorful floral and figurative motifs in embroidered cotton thread, a technique specifically named…
A distinct regional lineage of bobbin lace, tracing — per documented historical research — to a technique originating in 15th-century Belgium and spreading through Italy, France, and Portugal before reaching the Azores archipelago and,…
A bobbin-lace tradition documented in Barra do Jucu, Espírito Santo, since the early 20th century, with further historical production centers noted in Conceição da Barra, São Mateus, Colatina, and especially Guarapari's Meaipe beach…
A bobbin-lace tradition of Rio de Janeiro state, formally documented by INEPAC (the state's Institute of Cultural Heritage) in a dedicated inventory, 'As Guardiãs da Renda: Rendeiras de Bilro no Estado do Rio de Janeiro,' identifying…
A bobbin-lace technique brought to Brazil by Portuguese and Azorean colonists more than four centuries ago, in which thread wound on small turned-wood bobbins (bilros) is worked across a printed paper pattern (risco) pinned to a…
A needle-lace embroidery technique built by sewing lacê — a manufactured cord or narrow braid — in specific stitches along a pre-planned paper design, worked over tracing and kraft-paper supports in silk or white cotton thread.
A fine needle-lace technique, worked with cotton thread over a drawn pattern pinned to a cushion support, that traces its name to its origin in 15th-century Flanders during the European Renaissance.
PARTIAL RECORD BY DESIGN. This record documents only the publicly exhibited, gallery-shown dimension of a craft tradition rooted in the material culture of Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion of Yoruba origin centered in Salvador, Bahia.
The hand-modeling and painting of clay into figurative sculptures depicting everyday scenes, folk characters, and regional narrative — musicians, farmers, wedding couples, funeral processions, and outlaws — a tradition founded by Vitalino…
The hand-modeling of river clay, gathered from the banks of the Vale do Paraíba's streams, into figurative sculptures depicting everyday life, popular festivities, saints, and animals — a tradition specifically fusing techniques 'herdada…
The exclusively female practice of modeling and painting ceramic dolls — Ritxòkò for female figures, Ritxòò for male figures — by women of the Karajá people (who call themselves Iny, meaning 'we'), who live in roughly 20 villages along the…
The modeling, incising, and painting of clay vessels, funerary urns, figurines, and ritual objects in a tradition descending directly from the pre-Columbian Marajoara culture, a sophisticated mound-building society that flourished on…
The hand-modeling, open-air firing, and tannin-sealing of clay cooking pots (panelas), a technique of indigenous origin — archaeologically identified specifically with Tupi-Guarani and, more strongly, Una-tradition cultural legacy —…
The collection of riverbed clay, tempering it with cauxi — a freshwater sponge or coral that grows on riverbanks and vegetation roots — and hand-building it into vessels ranging from small pots to bowls up to 115 cm in diameter, practiced…
The weaving of arumã (also called aririte) fiber into baskets, sieves, and the tipiti — a long, tubular woven press used to extract toxic prussic-acid juice from grated bitter manioc, an essential food-safety technology paralleling similar…
A craft identity built almost entirely by internal migration, since Brasília itself was founded only in 1960 as a purpose-built federal capital with no deep pre-existing craft lineage of its own.
The weaving of piaçava (Attalea funifera, a palm species endemic to Bahia's coastal Atlantic Forest) into baskets, trays, and sousplats, and the carving of the same palm's seed (coco de piaçava) into 'vegetable ivory' jewelry, practiced by…
The hand-crocheting of garments, household linens, and decorative pieces in Macaparana, a small municipality of roughly 25,000 people in the Mata Norte region of Pernambuco, Brazil, approximately 120 kilometers from Recife, formally…
The seasonal harvesting and hand-weaving of capim dourado — the long, naturally metallic-golden stem of a wildflower (Syngonanthus nitens), not actually a grass — sewn together with buriti palm fiber into baskets, mats, and, increasingly,…
A cluster of related Polish folk craft techniques preserved by descendants of Polish immigrants who settled Paraná's colônias beginning in 1876, most notably Colônia Dom Pedro II in Campo Largo.
The daily tapping of wild rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis, seringueira) along a fixed forest circuit (estrada de seringa) connecting 100 to 200 trees, and the transformation of the collected latex — traditionally boiled into export balls,…
A material culture complex practiced by the Suruí people of Rondônia state, who call themselves Paiter — 'gente de verdade, nós mesmos' (true people, ourselves) — speakers of a Tupi language of the Mondé linguistic family.
The cultivation, hand-spinning, and knot-weaving of cotton into hammocks and nets, practiced by Wapichana women across the Lavrado savanna region of Roraima, Brazil's northernmost state, on the border with Guyana.
The casting, chasing, and engraving of silver and gold into gaúcho horse-tack and personal adornment — stirrups, spurs, breastplates, bridles, knives, mates, and rastras (belt buckles) — a Rio Grande do Sul tradition whose 19th-century…
Two formally Geographic-Indication-protected mineral craft traditions of Goiás state: silver jewelry making in Pirenópolis, a former 1727 gold-rush settlement whose economy shifted through cotton agriculture after the 18th-century gold…
The casting and finishing of estanho (pewter — an alloy of 90 to 98% tin, refined from cassiterite ore, combined with 1 to 8% antimony and 0.25 to 3% copper, since pure tin is too soft for standalone use) into liturgical and domestic…
The making of the berimbau — a single-stringed musical bow consisting of a curved wood bow (verga or arco), a steel string (arame), and a resonating chamber made from a dried, hollowed gourd (cabaça) — the leading instrument of capoeira,…
The making of caixas de Marabaixo — the traditional drums central to Marabaixo, the Afro-Brazilian musical, dance, and religious tradition of Mazagão Velho and the wider quilombola community of Amapá state, Brazil's northernmost state on…
The carving of wood blocks into simple, bold black-on-white relief images and their hand-printing as covers for literatura de cordel — small, hand-printed chapbooks of narrative poetry sold hanging from strings at markets and fairs across…
The carving of pedra-sabão (soapstone, or steatite) — a soft, oily-textured metamorphic rock composed mainly of talc, found in abundance around the historic mining towns of Ouro Preto and Mariana, Minas Gerais — into sculpture, cookware,…
The making of saddles, sandals (alpargatas), bags, and clothing from hand-tooled, naturally-dyed leather, a craft rooted in the ofício de vaqueiro (cattle-driving) tradition of Brazil's dry, thorny caatinga interior, dating to 16th-century…
The tanning of raw cattle hide and its transformation into the distinctive multi-layer tack of the pantaneiro — the cowboy of Brazil's Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland — including saddles (sela), bridles (freio), stirrups…
The construction of the boi — the ox costume at the center of Bumba Meu Boi, Maranhão's ritualistic folk-theater complex blending music, dance, and Afro-Indigenous-Catholic spirituality — built over a wooden and leather frame worn and…
The carving of miniature wooden boats (barquinhos) from caixeta wood, a craft originating not as a commercial product but as a direct response to material scarcity: the caiçara fishing community of Mamanguá, near Paraty, on Rio de Janeiro…
The mining, lapidary cutting, and jewelry-setting of opal from Pedro II, a municipality in northern Piauí that holds Brazil's and the Americas' only reserve of noble (precious) opal — the world's second largest such deposit after…