Pisão of Tabuadela

Yesterday was my first visit to the Pisão of Tabuadela and to a pisão all together.
I met Mr.Francisco, who is a “pisoeiro” and owner of the “pisão” he inherited from his father, who explained to me a couple of things about how it works and a few more about wool and “burel” - the traditional portuguese fabric made of woven felted wool.
The woven wool, to make a good “burel”, needs to have the warp made with well spun yarn, and the weft with a looser yarn, not so twisted. If they are too twisted, the wool fibre will be to tight and it won’t be possible to felt the wool to cover the fabric.
For the same reason, the weave shouldn’t be too tight, so that there’s space for the wool to felt and make a nicely covered and even burel.
So, a good burel depends not only on the time the pisoeiro is willing to invest, but also on the craftmanship of the weaver.
To start the pisão, a minimum of 24Kg of wool is necessary.
The wool is kept always wet with hot water, that the pisoeiro keeps warming up in a copper pot and it has to be moved, sometimes, so that it doesn’t felt twisted (this would ruin the cloth). In the times when the production of burel was bigger, the pisoeiro would stay in the pisão for 15 days straight, without going home.
Usually, the 24Kg of wool would take 24 to 36 hours to become burel. It was then put to dry on the fields, and then returned to its owners to make burel capes, blankets or other garments.
Something worthy of a note is Mr.Francisco’s strong will to return the Pisão of Tabuadela to its working days.
In a time when most of the people I meet think it’s not worthy to invest in traditional technologies,  someone like this shouldn’t be wasted.