Carlos Barroso has his workshop in Caldas da Rainha, his father being his inspiration and his desire to work with clay thirty years later.

Carlos Alberto Manique Barroso was born on 10 October 1972 in Caldas da Rainha, the son of Guilherme Gomes Barroso, who signed many pieces under the pseudonym “Guigoba”. He is his great inspiration and his return to ceramics is, in a way, a tribute to his father, despite the fact that until now he had never made any pieces similar to his father’s, as he considered him to be the best rhodist in the country.

He worked with clay from an early age and took part in the traditional ceramics fairs held in Parque D. Carlos I alongside his father in the 1980s.
He accompanied his father for several years until he fell ill and later died in the 1990s.

His father’s illness took him away from clay and he took up photography in the 1990s, a profession he still has today.

But his roots always called to him and in 2014 he decided to get back into clay. That same year, he created a piece of “Rainha D. Leonor”, which can be found at the headquarters of the Nossa Senhora do Pópulo, Coto and São Gregório Parish Council.

She decided to continue producing and creating her pieces, but also went in search of what people wanted to take away from the city and ceramics, setting up a stall in Praça da Fruta. In 2018 he created a traditional line of Caldas souvenirs, which led him to be invited to create similar pieces for the cities of Peniche, Nazaré, Lourinhã, Lisbon and others.

On his return to ceramics, he considers himself self-taught, with memories of his father, but he attended a pottery course, a glazing course and others at Cencal between 2013 and 2019.

He works with white clay, red clay, black clay, stoneware and various glazes, engobes, ceramic and acrylic paints. He has no preference for any of them, as he feels comfortable working with and mixing all of them, firing them in raku, at low or high temperature, depending on the result and purpose for which they are intended.

He sells his pieces in shops and at Praça da Fruta at weekends. He is a member of the Caldas da Rainha Craftsmen’s Association and takes part in its initiatives.