It is hard to believe that a year has passed since I took a trip to Portugal to meet all our Portuguese partners at the factories in Barcelos. I had been dreaming of going to meet everyone in Barcelos for as long as we have been importing our galos. Since the legend of the Galo de Barcelos started in the city of Barcelos, it was a magical experience to visit our vendor partners located in the heart of that very city. (For our Legend of Barcelos blog, https://roostercamisa.com/blogs/news/the-legend-of-the-portuguese-rooster). The days I spent visiting the factories were incredibly special; meeting the painting and sculpting masters changed me forever. I hope you enjoy looking behind the scenes of this time-honored process as much as I did.
Rooster Camisa is dedicated to supporting our Portuguese vendor partners and it is a fundamental principle of Rooster Camisa to align ourselves with craftsperson’s in Portugal. All our imports are made in Portugal by the Portuguese people in the northern regions of the country. These lovely people have left a lasting impression on me and I cannot wait until I’m able to return to visit them again.
Visiting the metal rooster factory could be equated on the level of excitement for me as a child going to Disneyland for the first time. The exception here would probably be that our experience was fully interactive, and we walked through all steps of how the roosters are made! The bonus was our vendor partners took the time to explain to us all the details and welcomed us into their world.
It all begins with bars of aluminum that are poured into molds and then welded together. The pieces then get put into a tumbler to smooth out the edges. Once pieces have been made as smooth as possible with machinery, they evaluate the remaining imperfections one by one. Each piece then goes through several rounds of sanding to remove the balance. There are several stages of sanding and refining each piece until they are completely smooth and ready to paint.
Once pieces are ready to paint, they are coated in several layers of the base color. Once the base color is completed, the hand painting begins. Each heart, flower, eye, and dot is painted onto the pieces by hand. The painter hand blend colors and apply two colors to the brush to give each flower peddle its definition. From the comb of the rooster to the feet, every detail is carefully painted and cures. Once it’s cured, it’s prepared for a topcoat. The method for coating depends on the size of the piece. Nothing in the factory is automated, and every process involves hand craftsmanship. This really underscores the fact that no two of our roosters are alike. When you purchase a rooster from Rooster Camisa, you’re getting a one of a kind.
We were incredibly happy to meet and speak to the workers at every station throughout the process of our visit. The pride reflected on the workers’ faces equaled what I felt inside. I wanted to be sure to deliver two messages to all the workers. Number one was that I was grateful for the beautiful work they do because it gives me a great sense of pride to be able to sell such beautiful work. The second was that I had made this trip because I wanted to visit the people that made our roosters; I let them know meeting them was the highlight of my visit.
Rooster Camisa is committed to supporting our Portuguese vendor partners by importing our roosters from Barcelos, Portugal. It’s our honor to support them as we share our beautiful culture with the rest of the world.
- Goretti Medeiros
Starts with aluminum bars
Tumbling out imperfections
Sanding out the last of imperfections
Painting on base coat
Hand painting all of the details
Getting a lesson on how to paint details!
