Menokreatikul; Crafty Stuff for Final Friday Feature

At the McLean Museum (see yesterday's post), a couple of cabinets were dedicated to the mighty ceramics industry of the greater Glasgow area. 

...say what? How could I have missed the fact that second to shipbuilding (almost) came the great Scottish pottery throwdown??!! I knew, of course, about Wemyss Ware (est 1882 and still going) and Lochinver Pottery (now known as Highland Stoneware), which started up almost as others disappeared and still goes strong. I am the proud owner of a Lochinver potpourri bowl and a milk jug. I do love ceramics. Especially jugs. I could become a jugaholic if I were less constrained disciplined.

I had a go at pottery once. There's a reason I am a crocheter. 😏 I know at least a couple of you out there are as much fans of the Great Pottery Throwdown as I am - I have all admiration for those prepared to risk their skills in front of an audience. Anyhoo, what about this Glasgow connection?

My granny had a fair few of the blue Willow pattern items in her kitchen. I particularly recall an enormous (it seemed to me at the time) tureen that seemed never to run out of soup. Isn't that bowl delicious? Anyway, there was next to no info on the exhibits (probably due to the reshuffling), so it begged a bit of web-diving research. You all know how I love a bit of grubbing about the webbicles! 

There is a Scottish Pottery Exhibition celebrating what it terms the "ghost" industry... which I am taking to mean that not many folks actually knew about it beyond those who were employed by it. This makes me feel not quite so bad about my ignorance! On that website, there is a short film introducing some of the history, narrated by the curator and some students of the City of Glasgow Art College who are carrying on the pottery heritage. It is not embeddable, so here is the link. In it, there is a reference to kilns in Portobello... that's just a bus ride from my late father's home. I lived in Edinburgh for ten years before emigrating, and I had no idea there had been a pottery in Porty!

I did track down another film on the tubular with the same presenter, Ruth Impey. Some similar stuff, but also different and equally short, so here it is.