The Legend of Maní
In the oral tradition of Brazil's indigenous Tupi people, Maní was a child of light — born of a sacred union, gone too soon, and buried with love by her mother's hands. From the earth where she lay, a root grew that no one had seen before. The people named it manioc (meaning the house of Maní) and from it came what would feed a civilisation.
We carry her name as a reminder of where this all begins: in the earth, in the hands, in the stories we pass down.
Two mothers. One atelier.
Atelier Maní was born from a particular kind of longing — the kind that only someone far from home truly understands. We are Giullia and Deise, two Brazilian mothers who found each other in the Netherlands, and who carried the same memory across the same ocean: the smell of Pão de Queijo warm from the oven, the table set, the family close.
What we make today is an act of remembrance as much as it is a craft. We honour the sacred root — the cassava, Maní's gift — by treating it with the same care and intention it has always deserved. Every piece that leaves our atelier in Valkenswaard was shaped by our hands, for yours.