Counter//Craft

29/01/2026

.coletivo isn’t just a group. It’s a pulse. A shared hunger to bring life back into a city that had grown quiet. In recent years, Espinho felt dormant, paused between seasons. Salitre showed up with sound, bodies, light, and intention… and reminded the city how to move again.
I met them at their headquarters, the now-familiar "Casa da 14". Not a pristine office or a polished venue, but a raw, lived-in space where ideas pile up on tables, walls carry the marks of past nights, and the future is constantly being planned. I photographed them while they were organizing their next event. Voices crossing, music references flying, details being argued and refined. Real work, happening in real time.
Salitre is made of many people, many hands, many visions. I didn’t get the chance to photograph everyone, but I believe they’re all present in the ones I met. Creative, warm, restless individuals with the drive to build something where nothing was handed to them. You can feel it in the way they talk, the way they listen, the way they care.
What they do goes beyond parties. They create moments of friction and connection. Spaces where music isn’t background noise but the main language. Where art isn’t decoration, but the reason people gather. Salitre doesn’t wait for permission, doesn’t chase trends, doesn’t polish the edges to fit a mold. They build culture from the ground up - by showing up, again and again.
In a world obsessed with fast consumption and forgettable experiences, Salitre chooses something else: presence, community, and risk.
They are makers of moments, culture shifters in a city that needed to be shaken awake.
They didn’t just revive Espinho. They proved that culture survives when people refuse to let it sleep.

27/11/2025

This is Rui, and he is the puppeteer behind everything at his puppet workshop (). In what used to be an old elementary school, Rui built a universe out of wood, cloth, wire, glue, paint, and the quiet devotion of someone who never abandoned the handmade world. Every puppet - small, towering, delicate, loud - is shaped by his own hands. No shortcuts, no teams, no factory formulas. Just Rui, his tools, his imagination, and the ghosts of stories asking to be born.
I visited him on a rainy grey day. Inside, though, everything pulsed with life. Rui was in the middle of creating a group of frog puppets for his next show. While he was listening to some metal tunes, I watched him work and it felt like witnessing the heart of creation: slow, patient, poetic.
Rui is also one of the few guardians of Teatro Dom Roberto, the raw, spirited Portuguese glove-puppet tradition with Italian blood in its roots. He keeps this fire alive with mastery: mouth pick in place, voice transformed into that unmistakable rattling tone that feels both ancient and mischievous. We spoke about it, and we talked about the time he accidentally swallowed a mouth pick on set! He laughed warmly, because only someone who truly lives this craft understands how these odd little disasters become part of their story.
He travels constantly, crossing cities and countries, carrying entire worlds inside suitcases. And once, on a long plane journey, his puppets went missing... lost somewhere in the belly of an airport maze. For a moment, it was as if his characters had slipped into another dimension. Luckily, they were found, unharmed, ready to step back on stage. Even his puppets seem to know they have a mission.
His atelier, once filled with children learning their first letters, is now filled with characters learning their first breaths. Puppets hang from beams and shelves like silent witnesses; tools rest with the calmness of well-used objects; the whole place feels like a secret theatre suspended between past and present.
Rui’s shows attract everyone. Kids caught in the wonder, adults surprised by how deeply a puppet can touch something old inside them. Laughter, awe, occasional tears. That’s what real puppetry does: it cracks open the human heart with wood and string. He also teaches workshops where anyone can learn to build their own puppets from reusable materials... a quiet revolution of craft and ecology, proving that imagination is the most renewable resource we’ve got.
While the world pushes everything toward speed, mass-production, and forgettable experiences, Rui chooses slowness, devotion, and handmade truth over hollow convenience. You’re feeling the quiet rebellion of craft, and the magic that only the handmade can carry.

27/10/2025

Meet Andreia and Giró, they are the owners of .
Andreia greets you like family. Smiling, genuine, and ready to make you feel at home. She’s the heart at the door, while Giró works the soul in the kitchen. A long-time vegan and a professional chef, he doesn’t chase trends or fancy plating. He cooks with fire, soul, and conviction.
At Lupin, they take the essence of the Portuguese tasca: those old, unpretentious bars filled with noise, laughter, and the smell of food made with love... and reimagine it through a vegan lens. No gourmet gimmicks. No sterile minimalism. Just honest, plant-based versions of the dishes that shaped generations: francesinhas, rojões, pastéis de nata... all reborn with compassion and craft.
In a scene where vegan often means expensive, cold and curated, Lupin walks the other way. There’s a punk edge in their refusal to fit that mold, a rock’n’roll pulse in their independence. You feel it in the air, in the laughter from the kitchen, in the way the food hits your table: simple, bold, alive. And every corner tells a story: from the hand-drawn chalk menus to the mismatched chairs, everything feels personal, handmade, and true. Here, veganism isn’t about purity. It’s about love. About community. About doing things differently and doing them well. Andreia and Giró built Lupin with their own hands, their own hearts, and it shows. Every meal feels like an act of care, every plate a quiet rebellion against what “modern dining” has become. Lupin is culture reimagined through empathy and craft. It’s the taste of tradition, served with noise, warmth, and attitude. And it’s proof that kindness can have edge.

18/10/2025

This is Jorge - and his two ever-loyal companions, Lux and Nox - , and he is the owner of Antiprysm. Every print that leaves his hands carries the mark of a process that’s entirely his own. From stretching the screens to pulling the ink, from the first idea to the final dry. No assistants, no shortcuts. Just craft, repetition, and instinct.
Antiprysm is a one-man operation built from the ground up: a studio that used to belong to a jeweler, now echoing with the rhythm of squeegees, metal, and ink. It’s raw but complete, stripped down but alive. Every surface tells a story of use, every stain a trace of something made with purpose. Jorge works mostly for punk and metal bands. Printing T-shirts, hoodies, totes, patches, and whatever else can hold a print.
His work carries the pulse of distortion, the grit of underground music, and the defiance of DIY culture. You can see his dedication in the way he talks about serigraphy - there’s warmth in his voice, but also fire.
Each piece that leaves his studio is an act of resistance in a world obsessed with automation. He still believes in the slow, tactile beauty of doing things by hand - feeling the drag of ink, the tension of the screen, the quiet satisfaction of the final pull.
Antiprysm isn’t just about printing. It’s about preserving independence through craft.It’s the sound of metal translated into fabric, the permanence of passion turned into ink.

16/10/2025

⚡ Check out Discogs' article about the unique Edisco Lda , featuring Counter//Craft photos! ⚡

In Porto’s suburbs, eDisco’s tiny team is keeping the cassette alive — blending old machines, solar power, and a deep love of analog music.

08/10/2025

This is David, and he is the owner of Kieh!Kieh! Records (https://kiehkieh.bandcamp.com/).
His world spins on strange orbits: cult films, alien sightings, obscure books, religion, magic, satanism... and all the beautiful oddities that hide in the cracks of culture. He’s an aficionado of the weird, a true believer in the power of the fringe, and you can tell the moment he starts talking about it.
Every cassette he releases carries that devotion: the art, the inserts, the textures, the sounds. Each one is curated with care and an obsessive attention to detail, as if every tape were a tiny portal into his world. Nothing here is random, everything is chosen with intent and affection.
KiehKieh! is no corporate label. It’s a one-man operation running from the heart of his own home. Between stacks of tapes, books, and relics, David builds a space where sound and story collide.
He hunts, restores, and releases what others might overlook: alien transmissions, cult confessions, B-movie dreams, satanic masses, dissonant prayers... you name it. In an era addicted to clean algorithms, he keeps the dirt, the hiss, the mystery.
He doesn’t just run a label. He tends a world that shouldn’t exist, but thankfully still does.
And in that world, the strange feels like home.

20/09/2025

Meet Filipe and Sandra, they are the owners of Nerdcraft.
Two artisans, always with a warm and welcoming smile, turning wood into living canvases. Etched by fire, shaped by patience and always inspired by the cult worlds of cinema and TV.
They’re not just making nerd art. They’re nerds themselves, joyfully obsessed with cult films and sci-fi universes, and it shows in every burn mark and every design.
What they do isn’t fast or easy... No shortcuts, no machines, and no laser cuts. In a world hooked on fast, plastic, machine-made art, Filipe and Sandra choose fire, patience and handwork. Every detail is drawn and burned by hand, line after line, stroke after stroke. Their work carries the marks of time, the imperfections that make each piece unique - because real craft never repeats itself.
Step into their space and you’ll see boards, plaques, chopping boards, kitchen utensils... all kinds of wood, all kinds of story. From hanging signs to rustic logs, from kitchen boards to light-bottles, each piece is born from hand and heat.
You feel it immediately: warmth, care, and a spark of nerd joy. It’s not just merchandise, it’s memory, carved and scorched into wood.
Nerdcraft is love made tangible, independence made visible, and craft made to last.
Because in their hands, even fire becomes art.
May the burn be with you.

04/09/2025

Meet Taciana and Paulo, they are the owners of .
Here, ink and metal are more than decoration—they’re conversation, trust, and ritual. Taciana holds the space with care and vision, Paulo Rui works the needle and the blade as tattooer and piercer, and Marcus adds his hand to the gallery of skin, each line and shade a signature of craft.HeartGallery doesn’t box itself into one style. Blackwork, color, fine line, bold... what matters is the dialogue with the client. Every mark is personal, every session shaped by proximity, not distance.Step inside and you’ll feel it immediately: warmth, not judgment. Clients talk about being treated like family, about feeling comfortable the moment they walk through the door. Here, professionalism meets kindness, and precision walks hand in hand with humanity.HeartGallery is a place where all races, all religions, all genders are welcomed without question. In a world that loves labels, they choose openness. In a culture that thrives on speed, they take the time to listen.The studio is alive with energy. Super friendly, deeply creative and relentlessly professional. More than a shop, it’s a sanctuary where craft meets care, where stories are written on the skin with honesty and respect.They don’t just leave marks. They create bonds.

25/08/2025

Meet Armando Cerqueira, he is the owner of Edisco.
The last cassette factory in the Iberian Peninsula, still spinning tape when everyone else plugged into files. They told him the cassette was dead, but Armando never bought that track.
Edisco is resistance. In a track-hopping, disposable age, cassettes demand ritual over clicks and texture over convenience.The underground never really let go of the format, and now it’s spreading again. Artists, collectors, and labels are choosing the hiss, the warmth, the imperfections that make music feel alive. Metal bands know where to go when they want their albums to sound punishingly raw. Noise, blackened riffs, extreme vocals... all amplified into analog permanence.
Inside the factory, tape spools, machines hum, duplicators click. Each sound a heartbeat in the fight to keep analog alive. Armando isn’t just preserving a product; he’s preserving tangibility, texture, and the stubborn poetry of physical media.
Edisco is proving analog still matters, and that good things are meant to last.
They don’t just make cassettes. They make time tangible, one hissed track at a time.

06/08/2025

Meet Pedro, Earl, Jorge, and Zé. They’re part of the Audiowax.eu team. Pedro, Jorge, and Zé are part of the owners, and Earl is a collaborator.
In a world racing toward the digital void, they’ve chosen a slower, heavier, more tactile path: pressing vinyl by hand, with machines that roar and rattle like old gods refusing to sleep. Audiowax is the last vinyl pressing plant in northern Portugal. A new project born from obsession, risk, and a refusal to let analog die quietly.
Audiowax presses records across every genre, because music isn’t about categories. It’s about presence, texture, and physical weight. This isn’t nostalgia. It’s hot PVC, steel plates, hiss, and grind. Precision engineering and human oversight guiding mechanical rhythm. Every copy that leaves the floor is a physical commitment to sound… and a middle finger to disposability.
They’re not clinging to the past. They’re proving that analog still matters and that good things are meant to last.
Audiowax doesn’t just make records. It makes sure records still get made.
This is survival through craft. And it spins at 33⅓.