Try your hand at Portuguese filigree

Portugal has a rich tradition in the art of hand-made filigree in which thin gold threads are twisted into subtle lace-like patterns. The House of Filigree atelier, museum and boutique opened its doors in 2019 to actively safeguard this craft endangered at the turn of the century by cheaper mass-production methods. Workshops are regularly organised in this multi-sensorial space to enable a closer contact with the filigree technique. Participants learn how to work the filigree threads with tweezers, using the main spiral (rodilhão) and scale (escama) techniques to fill the structure of a jewellery piece, such as a heart. This is a delicate hands-on experience.