The Decorators of Portobello: In Their Own Words

We're looking forward to celebrating the launch of The Decorators of Portobello: In Their Own Words with some of the contributing authors here in the bookshop.

Portobello’s distinctive bottle kilns are now the only physical remnant of a once thriving ceramics industry. But the voices of the women, who painted the distinctive thistle design on pots at the celebrated Buchan pottery, have remained largely unrecorded until now. This new book by artist Nicky Bird celebrates five of Buchan’s former decorators, through their own words, personal photographs and other memorabilia.

The Decorators of Portobello: In Their Own Words aims to provide a lasting record that draws attention to a group of women’s working lives at a point in time when we have an increased sense of the importance of place and industrial heritage to Western Portobello.

The book is the culmination of a two year residency (2019-21) with Nicky Bird, as part of Art Walk Projects LandMark residencies, which centred on the role of place and the shaping of community, to consider local sites of value, in particular relating to Portobello’s working land and industrial past.

There are a limited amount of free in-person tickets available for this event. We are planning for it to take place in the bookshop with a small in-person audience of up to 30 people (our usual capacity is 100). Following Scottish Government advice and guidelines, in-person audience attendees will be asked to wear a face covering inside the bookshop unless they are exempt.

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