Mário Alberto Moreira

The Cardboard templates

Mário Alberto Moreira was born in 1951 in the current parish of Termas of S. Vicente, where he lives and works. At the age of eight, he learned the art of tinwork and, along with two brothers, made a second home of the workshop that employed his father.
The cardboard templates, made by his father, are still the best allies today. The scissor, the plier and the wrench, the compass, the lathe, the anvil and the welding torch, all come from that time, and there is no tin, tinplate or zinc plate that comes out unscathed.

Retirement has arrived but the craft continues, it is very popular among the inhabitants of that area who make use of it to recover and fix several objects. Nowadays, he is the only tinsmith in the whole county and, about the current market, he shows concern about the scarcity of available tin, stating that «the biggest challenge is to find people interested in learning this art».