Saturday 11 February 2012

Handy Crafts of Portugal: ceramics

My traveling style has been shaped greatly by my time Traveling with Clarence, my biology professor from Westminster College, during our J-term courses. Although J-term is no longer practiced at the school (a huge mistake on their part I believe) he continued traveling with students and alumni as long as the economy has allowed, in fact, we still discuss going to dive the Great Barrier Reef together.

While I earned biology credits on my J-term courses, we gained a great deal of insight about the cultures of each location we visited. I have a number of treasured hand made items collected from each location and Portugal is no different.

I have already discussed the wall plaques my sister had and my quest to add to her collection. Pottery of all levels is an extremely popular handy craft. My husband brought a cat mug back from one of his first visits to Portugal. It is very cute and has a 3d cat inside the mug. Mr. G may be drinking from it as he reads this post!

Ceramic tiles are also widely used throughout the area. We picked up this little hand painted letter tile, I can't decide if I should frame it or make it into a Christmas ornament. Tile work is not reserved for bathrooms or kitchen. Our villas are tiled throughout. The portuguese take tile work one step further though. Here are a few examples of external tiles, and not just around the swimming pool!


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