Porches Pottery is a producer of hand-painted pottery

Pottery

Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

 in the town of Porches

Porches (Lagoa)

Porches is a civil parish/freguesia in the municipality/concelho of Lagoa in Portugal, about 10 km east of the city of Lagoa. It is 15.57 km² in area, with 1,901 inhabitants ; its population density is 122.1 persons/km²...

, in the Algarve region of Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. The pottery was founded in 1968 by artists Patrick Swift

Patrick Swift

Patrick Swift was an artist born in Dublin, Ireland. Patrick Swift was a painter and key cultural figure in Dublin and London before moving to the Algarve in southern Portugal, where he is buried in the town of Porches...

 and Lima de Freitas

Lima de Freitas

Lima de Freitas was a Portuguese painter, illustrator, ceramicist and writer. He studied at the Escola Superior de Belas Artes de Lisboa....

, in order to revive a traditional Algarve pottery industry that was rapidly dying out in favour of more modern techniques. Swift and de Freitas chose Porches for its history as a pottery centre, dating back for many centuries, and for its clay pit

Clay pit

A clay pit is a quarry or mine for the extraction of clay, which is generally used for manufacturing pottery, bricks or Portland cement.The brickyard or brickworks is often located alongside the clay pit to reduce the transport costs of the raw material. These days pottery producers are often not...

s.

History

The origins of Porches Pottery date back to the early 1960s, when Irish artist Patrick Swift first came to the Algarve and encountered a region where handmade artecrafts were still abundantly produced and used, a system of commerce and production based around craft activities; a way of life, in fact, that had changed little since the Middle Ages. However, despite its remoteness, the region had begun its inevitable march towards 'modernity´, leaving behind a once thriving pottery industry. As mass-produced plastic and metal wares flooded the market, the potters found it increasingly difficult to compete and were reduced to making nothing but simple flower pots. In his book Algarve: A Portrait And A Guide(Images), published in 1965, Swift had noted this decline, saying of the dishes he would insist on using: "All the basic dishes were of the local Lagoa pottery- easily breakable and poorly glazed. But aesthetically pleasing and so cheap that breakages were no tragedy. Replacements after all helped to encourage an industry threatened with extinction. Even now some of the nicer old kitchen objects can no longer be obtained at the pottery. ‘People don’t buy them anymore,’ say the potters, ‘so we’ve stopped making them.’" An indication of this decline is that the pottery in Lagoa that Swift mentions closed shortly after his book was published - Lagoa does not having a working pottery to this day.

Saddened by this decline, Swift was determined to revive this ancient craft and realize his idealistic dream; to prove that the traditional craft-based form of socio-economic production, that had existed throughout Europe until the Industrial revolution, could be successful in the modern world. Swift eventually wanted to have an arts & crafts centre where traditional craftspeople could ply their trade and sell their goods. He was soon joined by Portuguese artist Lima de Freitas who shared his views. Swift in his book on Lisbon: "my reason for meeting Lima on this occasion was not to talk about art. It was something much stranger stemming from our basically sympathetic view points, we had embarked on a scheme so foolhardy that, looking back on it, I do not know how we had the temerity to start. This was nothing less than to try and resuscitate the local pottery industry in our part of Algarve." Having contacted local potters, the artists discovered that the craftsmen could still produce a great variety of forms that had been passed down to them by their ancestors. These pieces conformed exactly to those they had previously seen in museums, possessing the simple strength of ancient pots relating to the oldest Iberian civilizations.

To realize the venture in practical terms the two artists first approached the master potter, Mestre Gregório Rodrigues, who agreed to work with them. Swift purchased common oxides from the local hardware store, constructed a wood burning kiln

Kiln

A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...

 and proceeded to decorate Gregório's pots. The initial results were discouraging, but undeterred, they sought professional technical advice from ceramists in Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

, acquired an efficient kiln and soon the first distinctive pieces of Porches Pottery began to emerge. Their workshop was a small 17c farmhouse- today a ceramics workshop called Olaria Pequena- just at the EN125 entrance to Porches. The pottery was soon relocated to a larger building, designed by Swift, a little further down the EN 125 on the western outskirts of Porches, where it stands today. They trained local people in the mastered control of the brush, painting freely and directly onto tin glaze in the traditional majolica technique, with the girls displaying a natural ability. Very soon residents and visitors alike showed great interest in the pottery and, what began as an experiment to revive a dying craft, quickly turned into the successful venture that it is today.

Craft, Style, The Pottery

Craft:
The ceramic technique used to craft Porches Pottery is known as majolica

Maiolica

Maiolica is Italian tin-glazed pottery dating from the Renaissance. It is decorated in bright colours on a white background, frequently depicting historical and legendary scenes.-Name:...

.Majolica is the name given to tin-glazed earthenware

Earthenware

Earthenware is a common ceramic material, which is used extensively for pottery tableware and decorative objects.-Types of earthenware:Although body formulations vary between countries and even between individual makers, a generic composition is 25% ball clay, 28% kaolin, 32% quartz, and 15%...

 which is made by dipping fired

Kiln

A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...

 earthenware or 'biscuit'

Bisque (pottery)

Bisque porcelain is unglazed, white ceramic ware Examples include bisque dolls.Bisque also refers to "pottery that has been fired but not yet glazed...

 into a tin based glaze

Ceramic glaze

Glaze is a layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fired to fuse to a ceramic object to color, decorate, strengthen or waterproof it.-Use:...

 which provides the brilliant opaque white base onto which the decoration is applied. The technique is thought to have originated in Persia though was definitely well established in Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...

 by the 9th century where it became a prized alternative to the much esteemed porcelain

Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

 that was beginning to appear in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. Introduced into Europe by the Moors

Moors

The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...

, Iberia

Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...

 became famous as a centre of excellence for this type of pottery which due to its popular appeal was soon spread throughout the rest of Europe. At Porches the pottery is hand crafted and each piece is individually painted in a free flowing style. The glazing, painting and firing is all done on site.

Style:
The two artists researched the designs and motifs of ancient pottery, visiting museums throughout Europe, until finally some basic patterns began to emerge as being typical of the influences imposed by past civilisations that had once dominated the Algarve. These designs include the various animals, flowers and foliage that have become associated with Porches Pottery. Swift, having compiled a series of patterns the decorators at the pottery would work from, forbade slavish copying, instead insisting upon free flowing painting within the established style, which is a fundamental characteristic of Porches Pottery decoration

The Pottery:
Swift designed the building that houses Porches Pottery (which the Portuguese Government once listed) to resemble a 17C farmhouse (In Porches he also designed and restored a 17C building that today is the 'O Leao de Porches' restaurant, building the famous chimney himself; the original building and entrance to the International School of the Algarve, which Swift was instrumental in founding; and the stations of the cross at the Igreja Matriz (Porches)

Igreja Matriz (Porches)

The Igreja Matriz , is situated in the freguesia of Porches, in the concelho of Lagoa in Portugal.Founded in the 16th century, today the church has few vestiages of its early roots...

, where he is buried). It is in a long low white building. The steps leading up are faced with tiles depicting hares, hounds and birds which lead you into a walled garden with a fountain. More steps take you to an archway decorated with plaster mouldings by Swift; this is the entrance to the pottery. The pottery has an adjoining Café, Bar Bacchus

Dionysus

Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...

, which is decorated with tile

Tile

A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...

s painted by Swift. There is an outside eating area decorated with tiles designed by Swift’s late daughter, Katherine Swift

Katherine Swift (artist)

Katherine Swift was a painter, illustrator and ceramicist.- Biography :Family: Katherine was the first child of Patrick Swift and Oonagh Ryan. Her uncle was the artist John Ryan; Her aunt the film actress Kathleen Ryan. Born Dublin: Katherine was born in Dublin in 1956...

, who managed the pottery following her father's death and who, in the early 1990s, left the fold to found Estudio Destra

Estudio Destra

Estudio Destra Internationally renowned Ceramics/ Pottery Workshop based in Silves, Algarve, Portugal.Specializes in handpainted murals on tiles....

 in Silves- which continues to operate as a ceramics workshop. Porches Pottery's role in the revival of the regional craft has been recognised.