Specialist leather artist and trends consultant João Carvalho has said Portugal’s thriving footwear industry needs to “believe” more in the country’s tanners.

Mr Carvalho, who trained as a tanner before branching off to make sculptures of the human body and other art pieces from leather, runs a gallery and workshop in a specially designed building he calls his Art Space just outside the tanning town of Alcanena. He is a member of the family that runs the Couro Azul and Carvalhos tanneries in Alcanena.

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