Álvaro Leiro
A specialist in “palla e silveira” (weaving straw), Leiro has been dedicated to salvaging the dwindling knowledge and practice of age-old basketry and weaving methods that populate the hills surrounding his home studio in Galicia and beyond. His spirited efforts to document a slowly disappearing art brought him to the attention of the Centro Galego de Artesania e do Diseño, a foundation that safeguards the region’s artisanal patrimony.
His first time working with leather, Leiro took his vast experience of crafting reed and natural fibres into complex basketry and translated it into a series of intricately woven leather pieces that are based on his own existing designs and resemble works of art.