Raimunda Cícera da Conceição was born in Bananeiras, Paraíba, in 1934. “I grew up in Caicó, on a small farm. I used to look after the crops and help my mother make pots. At 10 years old I could do everything she did. I went to the city, got a job, but carried on working with clay. I earned very little and the pots helped. I even made a kettle.” Now, living exclusively off her art, Mrs. Raimunda says her children help, but she still models every piece. “It’s hard. My son Sandré has a psychiatric problem. He made some large sculptures on a wall, and the town’s people didn’t like it. They took them all down. He went crazy. Ran away, and I don’t know where he is.” Mrs. Raimunda gets many orders from the local people who know her as Dona Doida (Crazy Lady) or Raimunda Doida. Among the many pieces piled up in her single-roomed home, Mrs. Raimunda Doida says she enjoys making whatever comes into her head. “I like making figureheads, saints, images. I prepare the clay, mixing it with ground limestone. I was the one who started calling myself Doida (crazy). It’s an artistic name. I thought it would work, and it did.”