Porches Pottery

Last summer I stayed on the rural, unspoilt southern Portuguese coast, the Algarve. One place I had to visit was a pottery shop famous for it’s traditional Portuguese pottery.

If you have ever visited Portugal or plan to its quite difficult to find traditional hand-made Portuguese pottery. Mostly everything is manufactured on the cheap side and sold to tourists as ‘authentic’ local craft. We came across this pottery gem located in Porches, a little town known for it’s clay pits and pottery workshops.

Porches Pottery has been making pottery since 1968, run by Estella & Juliet Swift. They continue to produce beautiful hand-made Algarvian ceramics in keeping with ancient Iberian forms and motifs. You can see the local artists at work in the studio (which is a part of the shop space) painting the ornate designs onto each piece. If you like traditional Portuguese pottery this is the place to visit! They re-produce a handful of revivalist styles each year that is available in serve-ware, tableware and other decorative ceramics such as tiles and vases. I bought as much as I could carry back home in my suitcase! Also worth mentioning, they have a little garden cafe where you can eat and drink out of the Porches pottery – much needed after all that shopping.