Now it’s different, there are more collectors?
FR: There are some people who are also going to the fairs, the Vandoma, the flea market, the most typical, there are going to sell.

Any idea how many tiles have in your collection?
FR: I do not know I have a garage full, from tiles of the sixteenth century until the latest century. Do not sell them. I even know how I will put on the wall and bought accordingly. Four tiles, two different motives, eight of the same, mounted on opposite sides, one day I’ll put everything in my house (laughs).

Have you noted that the themes and designs have changed over the centuries? What were the reasons that have disappeared and others are maintained over time?
FR: All tiles exposed here were the result of a search from the oldest. Except the painted tiles, this is a more recent concept. I have several painters who work for me to sell, but these pieces are not part of my collection. It's something I'm starting. In the studio I have Portuguese and foreign artists, including Polish and Czech. They come here to learn. They are mostly from fine arts because factories do not allow them to be there. I let anyone paint at least half a dozen tiles, even if they are not good at all and give it to them. Does not cost me anything. They stay with that knowledge. All copies that I have are called tile facade that you see in the city, Porto.

The most traditional are more in demand as opposed to the latest?
FR: Yes, because they, the tourists, see the titles when they walk through the city, photograph it, come here and buy a piece. They desire them.

In addition to the crafts, the tiles, there are other more traditional pieces?
FR: Yes, wrought iron, people used to engrave some pieces and some have been equal to those in museums. It is a more regional handicraft; there is still a craftsman who makes everything by hand, currently most of the soldering iron.

But the young artisans do not recover these techniques?
FR: In wrought iron there is none. For the tile we have many people. It is an interest that is starting. Now there is no work, they have to make a living and gain a taste for these arts. The painters, who work with me, came to learn, see how I do it and then create. Young people have courses in painting, sculpture, but had not yet set a personal taste, it is happening slowly and I let them go, go in their way. My taste with regard to the tiles is not the most important in terms of sales. They are new, have different ideas and it also sells. I try to take advantage of these new generations. I like to do what they like and sometimes what I like too (laughs).

You have also pieces that are very different from the rest, this kind of pictures, what are they?
FR: They are records. Served to mark significant dates, important ones. Weddings, baptisms, deaths, for the worship of a particular saint. That is to say those were included in these tables, motifs and allusions to the subject. Registration with the figure of the saint of personality cult, for example, could be done with silver threads involving wire-shaped flowers, were many hours to perform these details. It is also embroidered with gold thread and only used old materials. The figures that we see in some of these pieces were made with bread, which were then painted. Many come from noble families, I recovered one from a family of Guimarães, had the name of all members since the time of the great great grandfather. The signatures are of themselves, as soon as they learn to write are placed in the record, stuck on a ribbon with a needle. It is an endangered art. In total there are at most ten people who make them nationally. I was part of that group, but now I do not. In the Azores, there are two people, but there are different, they are made with dried flowers. This art only existed as a rule, where there were convents.

Where are the materials?
FR: Bought from the priests, the vestments they no longer used. In jewelry, the antique shops, flea fairs, the upholstery, they dismantled antique chairs with velvet of over 150 years of existence, is that this is more beautiful and I would buy even if it was broken, then cut and applied.  In the interior, when I saw on the balconies of the houses older quilts, I went there and offered money it was enough for a 100 or more records. I have boxes, bags full of material. I made thousands, now I don’t. There is something for everyone, from those who can cost up to 1500 to five Euros. In the Nazaré, a fishing area, were made with the silver of chocolates, with broken glass windows that were cut to include it in the register, everything was used. The records depended on the richest region where they were made. Usually, the most elaborate came from large convents in Coimbra, Guimarães, Braga and Porto. The nuns offered them to rich people, the nobles who gave casks of wine, cereals or other offerings to the monasteries. It was a way of thanks; since they had no money in return they created the records. Imagine, twenty nuns around a table to draw up the motives, was a kind of assembly line. The most beautiful records that exist in Portugal, I have a few, are invaluable because of the manual work involved, but some can be seen in Guimarães, the museum of St. Torcato. There are also in Porto, are not in sight, we can appreciate them in the sacristy, in the rooms of the priests in old solariums who still have them. A hotel in Santa Marinha in Guimaraes, it was a former convent, has a record in each room.

How did you develop the taste for making records?
FR: When I opened my first craft shop in Guimarães. I liked religious art, I began to see, I thought I could do and learned from craftsmen who dedicated themselves to this art. After researching for myself, spoke to the priests, a person to plunging into something for taste discovers all. Not everything that was in the records I've made. I do not know how to embroider, I design it and someone did the sewing I wanted. Nothing is done alone.

Then you stopped, why?
FR: You cannot do everything. This was a hobby I had for 10 years; reached a certain point I got tired. My current passion is the tile, I have some knowledge that I acquired with my collection, I now create them, but this is also a long process of learning.