Catalog — Atlantic Forest Collection and Candle Collection

Collection 01

Atlantic Forest

Nine species from the largest surviving stretch of Atlantic Forest on earth, modeled one by one. Every piece leaves with a Certificate of Origin signed by the artisan and the species card.

No piece contains any animal or wildlife-derived material. These are representations modeled by hand in cold porcelain — a starch-and-glue paste. Nothing is taken from the wild: the collection exists to make the biome visible, not to remove anything from it.

PLATE 01

Guiana dolphin

Sotalia guianensis

Taxonomy Mammalia · Cetartiodactyla · Delphinidae
Conservation Vulnerable (VU) on Brazil's national list (Ministry of Environment Ordinance 148/2022)
Piece 5–7 cm · 10–20 g · hand-modeled cold porcelain

A small dolphin that lives in the estuarine channels of the Lagamar, a few kilometers from where the pieces are modeled. The estuary gives it food, shelter and a safe place for calves to grow — which is why it is seen there all year round. It was classified as Vulnerable on a projected 30% decline over three generations: bycatch in fishing nets, habitat lost to ports and marinas, chemical and noise pollution.

PLATE 02

Pumpkin toadlet

Brachycephalus sp.

Taxonomy Amphibia · Anura · Brachycephalidae
Conservation Brachycephalus pernix is Critically Endangered (CR) on Brazil's national list; most species in the genus remain Data Deficient (DD)
Piece 5–7 cm · 10–20 g · hand-modeled cold porcelain

Among the smallest amphibians on earth: 10 to 12 millimeters. It lives above 1,000 meters in the Serra do Mar range, in Paraná and Santa Catarina. It suffers from microendemism — each species occupies a tiny area, sometimes under 50 hectares, and a single mountain may hold one that exists nowhere else on the planet. Brachycephalus ferruginus, for instance, is known only from Pico Marumbi, in Morretes.

PLATE 03

Green sea turtle

Chelonia mydas

Taxonomy Reptilia · Testudines · Cheloniidae
Conservation Near Threatened (NT) in Brazil's national assessment — it left the national threatened list in 2022. Reclassified from Endangered to Least Concern (LC) on the global IUCN Red List in October 2025
Piece 5–7 cm · 10–20 g · hand-modeled cold porcelain

It reaches 143 centimeters of shell and 230 kilos. Its diet changes over a lifetime: it is born carnivorous and turns herbivorous once the shell passes 25 to 35 centimeters. It is the rare case of a species that improved category: more than forty years of nesting-beach protection grew the global population by roughly 28% since the 1970s. It stays that way only as long as the protection does.

PLATE 04

Mangrove land crab

Ucides cordatus

Taxonomy Malacostraca · Decapoda · Ocypodidae
Conservation Near Threatened (NT) in Brazil's national assessment; not on the national threatened list. Protected by a closed season and by the national mangrove action plan (ICMBio)
Piece 5–7 cm · 10–20 g · hand-modeled cold porcelain

A semi-terrestrial crustacean of the mangroves along the Paraná coast. Nocturnal by habit, it feeds mostly on mangrove leaves, which it eats inside its own burrow. It is a sentinel species: ICMBio uses population density in the Lagamar as a thermometer for mangrove health. A closed season and a national action plan exist, but commercial harvesting still puts pressure on the species.

PLATE 05

Southern tamandua

Tamandua tetradactyla

Taxonomy Mammalia · Pilosa · Myrmecophagidae
Conservation Least Concern (LC) — Brazilian national assessment and IUCN Red List
Piece 5–7 cm · 10–20 g · hand-modeled cold porcelain

Also called the vested anteater, after the dark patch that looks like clothing. It measures 47 to 77 centimeters of body, plus 40 to 68 of prehensile tail, and weighs between 5 and 7 kilos. It eats termites, ants, honey and bees. Not at risk in Brazil, though roadkill and forest loss remain its main threats.

PLATE 06

Nine-banded armadillo

Dasypus novemcinctus

Taxonomy Mammalia · Cingulata · Dasypodidae
Conservation Least Concern (LC) — IUCN Red List
Piece 5–7 cm · 10–20 g · hand-modeled cold porcelain

Crepuscular and nocturnal by habit, though it comes out by day when the temperature helps. From 39.5 to 57.3 centimeters and 3 to 7 kilos. It eats mainly invertebrates, rounding out its diet with plant matter, small vertebrates and eggs. The burrows it abandons become shelter for dozens of other species — it is an ecosystem engineer.

PLATE 07

Brazilian tanager

Ramphocelus bresilia

Taxonomy Aves · Passeriformes · Thraupidae
Conservation Least Concern (LC) — IUCN Red List. Endemic to the Atlantic Forest
Piece 5–7 cm · 10–20 g · hand-modeled cold porcelain

The emblematic bird of the Atlantic Forest, 18 to 19 centimeters long, endemic to the biome — it exists nowhere else on earth. The male carries the vivid red plumage that gave the species its Portuguese name, and its nickname, ox-blood; the female is less showy. Frugivorous, it favors the fruit of the embaúba, a tree typical of regenerating land.

PLATE 08

Scarlet ibis

Eudocimus ruber

Taxonomy Aves · Pelecaniformes · Threskiornithidae
Conservation Least Concern (LC) — national assessment. Regionally extinct on the Paraná coast during the 20th century; recolonizing since the 1980s
Piece 5–7 cm · 10–20 g · hand-modeled cold porcelain

It measures 50 to 60 centimeters, with a thin, long bill curved slightly downward. It owes the intense red of its plumage to carotenoids in a diet of fiddler crab. Abundant on the Paraná coast until the 19th century, it vanished from the region in the 20th, and has been returning since the 1980s — in 2008 it was sighted again in Guaratuba Bay after some 80 years of absence. Its red is the one ManuPekena uses as a signature color.

PLATE 09

Heliconia

Heliconia sp.

Taxonomy Liliopsida · Zingiberales · Heliconiaceae
Conservation Not identified to species level. The Atlantic Forest heliconias include Heliconia angusta and Heliconia farinosa, both native to the biome
Piece 5–7 cm · 10–20 g · hand-modeled cold porcelain

Known in Brazil as caeté or swamp banana. A clumping herbaceous plant with large, glossy green foliage. The spectacle is in the bracts — modified leaves in intense red that look like flowers and shelter the true, nectar-bearing flowers inside. It is pollinated by hummingbirds such as the scale-throated hermit and the swallow-tailed hummingbird, and the relationship between heliconias and hummingbirds is a textbook case of coevolution in this biome.

Sources for conservation status: Brazil's National List of Threatened Species (Ministry of Environment Ordinance 148/2022), ICMBio/SALVE assessment records and the IUCN Red List. Last reviewed: August 2026. Categories: CR critically endangered · EN endangered · VU vulnerable · NT near threatened · LC least concern · DD data deficient.