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Porches Pottery is a producer of hand-painted pottery in the town of Porches, in the Algarve region of Portugal. The pottery was founded in 1968 by artists Patrick Swift and Lima de Freitas, 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 pits. ==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 with 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'' (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.’"〔''Algarve, a portrait and a guide'', Patrick Swift & David Wright, Barrie & Rockliff, London, 1965; Swift’s essay "Living In Algarve", p.53,(ISBN 0214653323 / 0-214-65332-3)〕 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.〔''Patrick Swift 1927-83'', Gandon Editions, 1993 (ISBN 0-946641-37-4)〕 The artist eventually wanted 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 and helped him found the pottery. 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."〔''Lisbon: a portrait and a guide'', Barrie & Rockliff, London, 1971, ISBN 0-214-65309-9〕 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. Image: Porches.Pottery.Throwing..jpg|''Mestre Gregório Rodrigues'' Image: Porches.Pottery.Glazing.jpg|''Dona Julia glazing'' Image: Porches.Pottery.First.Plate.jpg|''First plate'' To realize the venture in practical terms the two artists first approached the master potter, Mestre Gregório Rodrigues, who agreed to work with them (his son, Mestre Fernando Rodrigues, worked alongside him at PorchesPottery〔Morreu o Mestre Fernando Rodrigues, o último oleiro de Lagoa, Sul Informação, 30 de Outubro de 2013 (the death of Mestre Fernando Rodrigues, the last potter in Lagoa) (). The "Escola de Artes Mestre Fernando Rodrigues" in Lagoa is named in his honour.〕). Swift purchased common oxides from the local hardware store, constructed a wood burning kiln and proceeded to decorate Gregório's pots. The initial results were discouraging, but undeterred, they sought professional technical advice from ceramists in Lisbon, acquired an efficient kiln and soon the first distinctive pieces of Porches Pottery began to emerge. Their workshop was a small 17th-century 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 EN125 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Porches Pottery (Olaria Algarve)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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