Pottery Workshop

Long before the first tourist set foot in Tarrafal, the women of the surrounding villages were making pottery. Not on wheels, not in gas-fired kilns. By hand, using clay dug from specific hillsides in Santiago Island, shaped with tools no more sophisticated than smooth river stones and pieces of dried gourd, fired in open pits using collected wood. The Traditional Pottery Workshop run by Tarradise Tours is a four-hour, easy-rated cultural experience that connects you directly to that tradition, working alongside the artisans who still practice it.

The workshop takes place in a village outside Tarrafal where a cooperative of local female artisans has maintained this craft through generations of economic change and social upheaval in Cabo Verde. The techniques they use are genuinely pre-industrial: there is no potter's wheel, no electric kiln, no pottery school methodology. Everything is coil-built or pinched by hand, shaped and smoothed against the body the way their mothers and grandmothers taught them, and fired in a pit that transforms the clay over several hours into the distinctive dark, burnished vessels that are one of the most recognisable craft traditions in Cape Verde.

During the workshop you will work with clay yourself, guided by the artisans at whatever level of involvement you are comfortable with. Some guests shape a simple vessel; others attempt more ambitious forms. All guests leave with a piece, either their own work or one made by the artisans as a demonstration, properly fired and ready to travel. The workshop also includes a walk through the village and time to see the full production process from raw clay to finished piece.

At €50 per person this is one of the most immersive cultural experiences available in Cape Verde, and the income goes directly to the artisans. Groups are kept small to ensure proper instruction and a meaningful atmosphere. Book via WhatsApp and we will confirm the session and give you any practical preparation tips.