• Abel makes bells and bell sculptures in a heritage way
• He once managed to cast a bell weighing 5,000 kg
• His pieces are one-of-a-kind because he uses medieval making techniques

Abel Portilla began working as an artisan immediately after finishing school. He started learning bell making alongside his grandfather, Marcos Portilla Linares. “My job was to sweep the workshop and keep all the tools in their place, as well as kneading the clay so that everything was ready for him,” he recounts. Abel opened his own workshop in 1985 after a priest, Josep Martínez Roldán, encouraged him to do so and commissioned him to cast the bells for his village church. The very first clients of his new venture came by word of mouth. Abel is intent on preserving the traditional processes of bellfounding, relying on techniques and processes from the Middle Ages. “Working without gloves or gadgets gives the bells an even more artisanal character, as my fingerprints are left imprinted for eternity,” he says.