The communal oven used to be the centre of the village. Everyone used it to make bread in a spirit of sharing and companionship. “The Host” was born out of this concept. It is a bread board created in honour of the village of Figueira, in which the textures and colours of wood and schist complement each other. The markings on the board evoke the tradition of the village, when people went from door to door to know who would make the next batch. The board celebrates bread, the host at the centre of the table, accompanied by wine, cheese and sausages.

After watching the baking of the bread, a rare ritual these days, but one that Dona Rosa wants to keep alive, it was in Sobral de S. Miguel, in the Soardósias quarry, that we went through the process of choosing, cutting, chipping and treating the schist to make the piece. We worked in partnership with the Schist Villages FabLab to laser-engrave the brand on the board, like the original ones used in the village for marking whose turn it was to make the bread.