Maria Emília Sampaio is 54 years old and was born in the parish of Refontoura, in the municipality of Felgueiras. She currently lives in the parish of Vila Cova da Lixa, in Lixa.
Maria Emília is the matriarch of the family where HEARTS was founded, the company that created CASTELUX. She inspired the foundation of HEARTS and she is the mother of one of its founders.
She started learning the traditional embroidery of the Vale do Sousa region when she was only 4 years old, by reproducing the embroidery stitches of her mother, Deolinda Fernandes. Maria Emília also remembers accompanying her grandmother to the production of hand-made linen, a fundamental task for the development of the embroidery of the Sousa region. Meanwhile, she has already passed on her legacy of hand-made embroidery to her daughter, Teresa Vieira, who has also started learning when she was a child.
Maria Emília has a special taste for fine embroidery, namely in making monograms and Portuguese open work.
Now, she is the artistic advisor of HEARTS, a hand-made embroidery company, and she collaborates in the development of the CASTELUX trademark.