Last spring, the Ministry of Industry and Tourism of Spain, through EOI and Fundesarte, announced the XVII National Crafts Awards, of which the 15 finalists have just been announced, among whom we are extremely proud to be found. Its objective is to contribute to the development and competitiveness of SMEs in the craft sector, as well as to encourage innovation, design and their ability to adapt to the market.
Our candidacy
The seventeenth edition of the National Crafts Awards has received 80 nominations that will compete for the highest award. After studying the proposals, the selection committee, made up of experts from the craft sector and representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Tourism of Spain and the autonomous communities, has selected the 15 finalist projects, from various sectors and Spanish regions.
The Awards consist of 5 categories, three of them for artisan projects and two for promotional work by private and public entities. Three candidates have been chosen for each of them. Andalusia and Catalonia have been the regions with the most nominees, with four and three finalists each respectively, followed by Galicia and Castilla-La Mancha with 2 nominations each. By sector, ceramics stand out, followed by forging and metal, wood, textiles and others.
The National Crafts Award is intended to recognize the entirety of a consolidated work. It is the category in which our artisanal ceramics atelier in La Rambla is nominated along with the Catalan candle manufacturing company Cerabella, S.L. and the traditional lime stucco company Estucs, Esgrafiats i Restauració Oriol Garcia S.L. from Barcelona.
In our candidacy, we wanted to show the enormous pottery legacy that La Rambla has and the potential for design and contemporary adaptation of its ceramics in recent decades. Just having been selected among so many candidates is a reward for us and makes our struggle over the last 25 years introducing stoneware into traditional pottery and our commitment to quality tableware for restaurants worth it. In addition to being a joy for our business, it is a source of pride for our entire family, as we show in our video presenting the candidacy:
The finalists
Appart from the category mentioned before, for the Product Award, which recognizes the best product or collection presented, the finalists are Aitor Martínez López de Arbina for his collection “Códigos del alma”; Pròsper Riba Vilardell for his “Eclipsis” lamp; and Raúl Rodríguez Arias for his collection “Piel de Mouro”.
The three candidates selected for the Entrepreneurship Award, a category that recognizes the entrepreneurial person or company, highlighting the introduction of new concepts in the sector, have gone to Francisco José Millán Valiño for his furniture brand “Frouma” that recovers punt wood. ; Javier Reta Gallego and Myrte Sara Huyts, with their hat brand Maleza Hatmakers; and Laura Siles Ceballos, for her project based on wool from the Karrantza valley “Mutur Beltz”.
The Promotion Award for Private Entities will be decided between the Ramón Recuero Blacksmith School S.L.; Juan José Gómez Delgado for his project “Craft Training and Art Tourism Complex”; and Melchor Martínez Martínez for his project “The poetics of fire and earth. Reviving an Arab oven.”
And finally, the Promotion Award for Public Entities for contributing significantly to the promotion of crafts will be awarded to one of the following finalists: the Department of Employment, Business and Self-Employment of the Government of Andalusia for its traveling exhibition “Artesanía con “A de Andalucía”; the Insular Crafts Company S.A. from Santa Cruz de Tenerife for its MIDA project, I Innovation, Design and Crafts Exhibition; and the Public Company for the Promotion of Tourism and Crafts of Castilla-La Mancha for its “Artisan Legacy” project.
THANK YOU
Without a doubt, the greatest honor is sharing a nomination with so many fellow artisans who do not make you feel alone on the path and entities that truly believe in our work. Good luck to all of them!
And, of course, THANK YOU VERY MUCH to those who have trusted us with this award and to all our clients and followers, who are the ones who keep us here after so many years.