Portuguese 
Spanish 
The story of Marivan Ferraro brings together university, family memory, and embroidery in an academic work marked by the return to studies, the participation of her almost centenarian mother, and a journey that spans education, craftsmanship, childhood, and new personal projects.
Marivan Ferraro, 77 years old, defended her Final Course Work in Design at the University of Fortaleza, Ceará, on June 9, with a children’s project embroidered on fabric alongside her mother, Maria Augusta, 98 years old.
In the presentation, accompanied by family members, the panel, and guests, the student received a maximum grade for the work that transformed the biblical story of Noah’s Ark into a children’s embroidered book, combining academic training, family memory, and manual production.
Besides attending the defense in the audience, Maria Augusta directly participated in the creation of the work, helped in the initial stages of the embroidery, and was honored by her daughter with a floral arrangement prepared especially for that moment.
-
Domestic Workers in Switzerland Earn Around $220 per Day, Compared to $24-$60 in Brazil
-
As Engineering Jobs Decline in Brazil, Professionals Eye the U.S. with 186,500 Annual Openings and Salaries Up to $170,000
-
Brazilian Innovator Develops Concrete Blocks from Recycled Plastic, Eliminating Mortar and Reducing Construction Costs
-
World’s Most Powerful MRI Machine in France, Weighing 132 Tons and Generating 11.7 Tesla Magnetic Field, Offers Unprecedented Clarity of the Human Brain
Marivan Ferraro’s Final Course Work was born at home
The presence of the mother during the panel gained even more significance because the project began in the interaction between the two, before reaching the university as the final work of the Design course.
According to Marivan, the initial idea for the book came from Maria Augusta, who helped with the drawings, research, and the first embroidered stitches before the daughter finalized the material presented to the panel.
“My mother was the first to think of the work,” said Marivan, explaining that she went to her house, suggested some drawings, and started the process with fabric, erasable pen, pencil, and white carbon transfer paper.
During the production, mother and daughter shared the stages of the embroidery, in a construction that brought together artisanal practice, affection, and visual language within an academic project aimed at children.
“We both embroidered – first, she helped me, then I finished,” said Marivan, summarizing the partnership that shaped the book and moved those who attended the presentation of the Final Course Work.
Return to studies came after retirement
Before entering Design, Marivan had already built a career linked to the classroom, with a degree in Literature from the State University of Ceará and work as a Portuguese Language and foreign language teacher in the state network.
Retirement came in 2009, after a consolidated career and a family life marked by raising children and grandchildren, but stepping away from formal work did not end the interest in new learning opportunities.
In 2022, during a visit to Unifor with a friend who was pursuing postgraduate studies, the former teacher discovered the list of available courses and was drawn to an area that sparked immediate curiosity.
At the university reception, when asking for information about the undergraduate programs, Marivan was introduced to the Design course, which combined graphic design, interaction, and interface in a proposal different from the traditional path of industrial design.
Since the attempt to enter as a graduate did not progress because the course was new, she decided to take the entrance exam again about 30 years later after her last preparation for this type of test.
The result confirmed the change of course: Marivan was accepted with 980 points, resumed academic life, and began to engage once again with the university environment, now in an area related to visual creation.
From architecture to embroidered children’s book
The interest in visual arts and creation had accompanied Marivan since her youth, when she attempted to enter Architecture in 1969, driven by the desire to work with landscaping and an emotional connection with plants.
Acceptance into that course did not happen, and her path followed other directions after marriage, moving to Rio de Janeiro, the birth of two children, and nine years of life in the capital of Rio de Janeiro.
Upon returning to Fortaleza, Marivan had another child, studied Literature, and entered the state public education system, building the career that would later open the way for a new stage of university education.
In the Design thesis, old family references reappeared strongly, especially the childhood memories in Paraíba, where her grandmother ran a small shop in João Pessoa.
In that environment, Marivan saw seamstresses and embroiderers preparing pieces for the store, an experience that remained in her memory and helped give meaning to the choice of embroidery as the project’s language.
By transforming fabric, threads, and narrative into a children’s book, the new designer brought together family memories, graphic experimentation, and education, without breaking away from the path she had already built as a teacher.
Children’s book was designed for young children
Marivan described the project as a “book-toy” aimed at children aged 2 to 4, an age group where many still do not master conventional reading and approach stories through other senses.
The proposal allows the narrative to also be perceived through touch, texture, and interaction with the fabric, enhancing the child’s contact with images, characters, and embroidered visual elements.
“The child reads with their hands. The theory explains and justifies that the little ones start reading this way,” stated the retired teacher, writer, and designer, when explaining the pedagogical logic used in the work.
After the defense, Marivan began planning a second revised edition of the same project and also expressed interest in launching another five children’s books for circulation in the market and in libraries.
The continuation of the projects maintains the connection between literature, craftsmanship, and family memory, in addition to expanding the presence of embroidery as a narrative resource in works designed for early childhood.
Maria Augusta has a career linked to the arts
In the panel, Maria Augusta’s participation gave the TCC a family dimension because Marivan’s mother not only attended the defense but was also present at the creative origin of the work.
At 98 years old, she is described by her daughter as an active woman, reader, writer, and author of at least five books, besides studying the Bible and teaching Biblical Hermeneutics.
Maria Augusta’s career also includes training as a decorator at the Rio de Janeiro School of Decoration and participation in the founding of the Ceará Decorators Club.
With this background, the collaboration in the embroidered book appears as a continuation of a life linked to applied arts, manual work, and creation, in direct dialogue with her daughter’s new training.
Speaking about her own willingness to continue studying, Marivan recalled a phrase taught by an aunt: “We have to live dying, and not die living.”
For her, advanced age does not end the possibility of learning, producing, and starting new projects, especially when academic training connects with memory, family, and experiences accumulated throughout life.
“Every day I live the day. I don’t dream too far, no. I don’t have very impossible dreams. I dream and I go realizing,” said Marivan, after completing her degree in Design with a work related to childhood, embroidery, and family legacy.
