In 2007, architect and designer Paula Leal, seduced by Rari’s crafts, started to work with artisans that develop its horse hair weaving technique. The way in which designer and artisans complemented each other preserved the communitarian and matriarchal nature of this traditional craft, giving it a new spin as it moves beyond the geographical boundaries of Rari and the traditional trades of women involved in this craft.
Leal's creations, continue to express inner female world through delicacy and elaborateness, but their motifs speak from the view of an architect set in an urban environment. Two of her designs, woven by artisans, received the “UNESCO Seal of Excellence for the Handicraft 2008”.
Paula Leal has taken part in exhibitions, fairs and Seminars, which has allowed to take this craft out of the folkloric background, taking it into the design and exhibition one.
