Munira Mendonça

Munira Mendonça began working with leather in 1977 in Bubión, Spain. She spent four years learning this craft as she worked in this small village in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Granada.

When she left she took with her a sound knowledge of the craft as well as a passion and desire to learn more. Since then her first love has always been the art of leather tooling. In 1996 Munira re-established her workshop in the lovely old city of Granada where Moorish art, crowned by the Alhambra, pervades and acts as a heavy influence in her work.

In the same year she met Diego Campos Mariscal, one of Granada’s last leather carvers, and she began studying the ancient traditional craft of tooled and carved leather under his guidance. Munira is both proud of and profoundly grateful for his teaching and collaboration. Over the years the workshop has become a family business which designs and handcrafts its unique range of leather articles. Her study of ancient designs and calligraphies and the use of traditional tools situate her items well within the leather tradition of Spain; a rich but dying tradition that spans over centuries

Her store provides space for local artists. Her main goal is to keep the tradition of leather carving alive in the city of Granada. With consistency and perseverance, she is renowned worldwide with many of her art works in private collections, mosques and government buildings.