The roses seem to have enjoyed being covered in stone dust and are wonderful as always

First an apology for the fact that we have not updated the site for a long time now.  Although we have had visitors to the gallery, we have been up to our ears in building work – and that in turn has meant a huge disturbance to the gallery.

Now we are nearly through with the work and we have an enlarged space which we hope visitors will enjoy.

People have asked if we have guest rooms – well, the good news is that now we do and some time in late August, these are available for booking – just drop us a line to inquire please or call us at +351 252 943 015.

If you are looking for peace and quiet – a rare taste of rural Portugal as it used to be and wonderful surroundings, look no further than Covas – an hour north of Porto Airport and half an hour form Spain to the north.

But you are also very welcome to Covas.

Here you can take a look at our handmade Jewellery, just click on the image below to take a closer look or go to our Photo page.
Please send us an  email to order, for further information or requests.

]]> http://gallerycovas.com/?feed=rss2&p=815 0 http://gallerycovas.com/?p=795 http://gallerycovas.com/?p=795#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:31:01 +0000 gallerycovas http://gallerycovas.com/?p=795 As you can see in the post below we have finally put in photos of our bottle stoppers.  This we said we would do a long time ago. But here they are.

These last days in Covas have been rainy, it is getting cooler and we realized that December is actually coming very soon – and so is Christmas.

We have got a lot of new things in the gallery and will be putting photos on the web in the next few days.  Here are the Angels from Iceland, handmade from Icelandic wool.

Click on the image below to take a closer look or go to our photo page.

Please send us an  email to order, for further information or requests.

]]> http://gallerycovas.com/?feed=rss2&p=681 0 http://gallerycovas.com/?p=648 http://gallerycovas.com/?p=648#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:55:43 +0000 gallerycovas http://gallerycovas.com/?p=648 Linen, Lavender and Lace

September means we have got this year´s lavender cut, dried and ready to be made into all kinds of lavender produce.  We have started by making lavender bags as they had all sold out.  As before we use linen and lace for the bags and fill them with our wonderful lavender.

This season´s lavender bags - € 6.50

Jewellery

We are using the stones (schist) from the mountains around Covas in our jewellery.  The schist is golden-brown and shiny and very delicate which makes it hard to work with, but we think the end result is well worth it.  As well as the schist we use silver, lava, porcelain beads (which we make at the Yavanna Studio) and various beads some of which we have collected our self´s from different parts of the world.

Locally made jewellery

Jewellery with schist

Wood

Robin has been busy with his woodturning and we have lots more of wonderful wine-bottles-stoppers and bowls, big and small.  We will be putting photos on the site in the coming days.

A selection of small gifts for sale - clockwise from left - Lavender bags €6.50, Wine stoppers €20.00 to €25.00, Cards from €1.75, Local Jewellery from €20.00

We have a lot of small items for sale, that are easy to take with you if you are traveling – which is useful given the horrible baggage allowance we get these days on some flights. They also make very useful inexpensive gifts.

The wine bottle-stoppers (€20–25) are very popular. They come in locally made small, soft bags, very nice as presents. We also have some locally made jewelry (20-40€), with stones from the Serra de Arga (the mountains around Covas). Lots of beautiful bowls, made from local wood, such as local olive (€45-220), and the handmade lavender bags (€6.50), with our locally grown lavender are also proving very popular with visitors.

A selection of hand-made cards from €1.50

We have a wide variety of lovely handmade cards (€2-2.50) and gift-tags (€1.50) handmade in Cape Town, South Africa.

We will slowly put more photos on the page, but this is it for mid June. If you have any questions then please contact us at – email us for specific questions or quotations or call – our contact details are on the right of the page.

Wine stoppers in local woods - left to right - olive (two), oak, vines (two)

Lavender Bags from Covas

Visitors have started to arrive and have been enjoying buying local presents before returning home – we have had people from Britain, Canada and the USA and they have gone back with a variety of presents for friends and family.  Easily the most popular items have been the wine stoppers in local woods and the lavender bags made here in Covas using local lavender.

Local olive wood bowls - full of character and so soft to the touch

It has been the most incredible spring – warm and filled with birdsong, with just enough rain to make everything grow prolifically – including the weeds!  The roses around the gallery are now in full bloom and will continue to give us joy for a few months yet.

The garden at Gallery Covas is bursting with spring colours - new lavender, bright red maple and muted olive greens

Everything is bursting with life – earlier than we have ever seen it too.  Since February we have had endless warm sunny days which has not only brought spring with a rush, but has been nourishing in the extreme after the cold days in January.  The birdsong has been incredible and while the UK may be seeing a decilne in the cuckoos, here we have the valley ringing with that molodic – if somewhat monotonous call.  We have been able to come to an amicable agreement with the swallows that used to nest in the space that has now become the gallery and while they fly in now and again to see what we have there, they have agreed that the alternative space that we have offered is just as good – if not better – for nesting.

In the gallery we have some wonderful pieces by Hans in his usual interesting and humorous style, a variety of crafts from Africa, produce from Quinta de Mos and of course turned items by Robin.  The wine bottle stoppers are a big draw this year and he has also been busy with some wood that we brought back from Mozambique in 2006.  He has some beautiful Pink Ivory that he has started to turn – it came from South Africa, where a friend had to cut down this one tree to make way for a road widening project.

The hyena that lives at Gallery Covas