Besides being an artisan, Fernando Alves is the founder of Can-
deeiros Alves, which is now Preggo Lighting. We had the pleasure
to came in and talk to Alves, who was assembling a new lumi-
naire. “This part is where it all begins, the place where we make
prototypes,” explains the artisan while in between cutting and
welding machines. This is “an extremely manual system and it
gives me so much joy to manufacture … nothing is automated,
it’s all manual, we produce the pieces we want to produce,” spec-
ified Fernando Alves. Recalling the moment where he saw the
designs exhibited in fairs, he discloses, “It gives me great pleasure
to see the pieces that are made here and I enjoy seeing the reac-
tion of visitors, because it is exceptionally positive, to listen to
their comments, which, fortunately, are always quite pleasant.
Amid cheerful fabrics and tropical ones, warm velvets and studs
as well as foam and threads, there was Paulo Justo drawing pat-
terns with an attentive eye. The artisan affirms, “What I like to
do the most is new things”. Preggo Upholstery creates, “every
type of pieces, from sofas to armchairs and chairs.” In addition,
Justo told us “we have upholstered a few things here” in refer-
ence to applying fabric to sideboards and consoles. They use “all
kinds of fabrics,” depending on what the client wants. Preggo
Upholstery started with four members and now it has ten, “two
seamstresses, six upholsterers, a fabric and a foam cutter, and
Rui who is our adviser.” Paulo speaks yet about what is to come,
“we are training people,” however he feels like, “there is a lack of
artists ... the passion needs to be there, but the truth is there is a
shortage of artists.”
PAULO JUSTO
ARTISAN OF PREGGO UPHOLSTERY
At Preggo Metal, we found Fernando Abreu, who was almost
finished polishing a mirror frame, as, at each slam of the ham-
mer, this new piece was starting to take shape. The artisan re-
counted that the team started with three members and has now
grown into eighteen. When asked what he likes to do the most,
he answered, “different pieces, for the very first time, because the
challenge lies in those”. While working constantly on pieces like
the Millionaire Safe or the Lapiaz Sideboard, the team’s biggest
challenge, to date, is a dining table, “it was the Empire, which
was done in its entirety,” but the hardest part was, “to lean the
sheet on to the furniture” We wanted to know what is the feeling
to see a completed piece to which he answered: “I am proud and I
feel like taking a different approach for the next time.”
FERNANDO ABREU, ARTISAN
PREGGO METAL
FERNANDO ALVES
ARTISAN OF PREGGO LIGHTING
This is due to the fact “that most of it has to do with manual
work,” and while in some occasions they do resort to machines,
they feel like “the material reacts differently.” Nevertheless, it
also depends on the person who is working it.
