Estudio Destra Internationally renowned

Ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

Pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

Workshop based in Silves,

Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. Specializes in handpainted murals on tiles. Estudio Destra was founded in the 1980s by the artist Katherine Swift (1956–2004) and the ceramicist Roger Metcalfe. They had both previously worked in the famous Porches Pottery (Olaria Algarve), founded by Katherine's father,

Patrick Swift Patrick may refer to: * Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People * Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

. It is located in a 16th-century

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

townhouse in the historic town of Silves, Algarve. Silves was once the capital of the Algarve and an important Moorish city that rivalled Lisbon. Among the very few buildings to have survived the earthquake of 1775 in Silves were the

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

, begun in the 13th and completed in the 15th century, and the building that today houses Estudio Destra. During the building's restoration a small indentation was noticed on the doorpost where a

mezuzah A ''mezuzah'' ( he, מְזוּזָה "doorpost"; plural: ''mezuzot'') is a piece of parchment, known as a '' klaf'', contained in a decorative case and inscribed with specific Hebrew verses from the Torah ( and ). These verses consist of the ...

— the little case containing a handwritten scripture from Deuteronomy and a fixture on a Jewish home — once hung. It has gone on to gain international repute and work from this studio is bought by collectors from around the world. Estudio Destra Studio Tile
Website

External links and further reading

Estudio Destra Studio Tiles Website

Porches Pottery Website
*Estudio Destra contac

*Estudio Destra Image

*AA Portugal (Spiral), p. 17, tiles by Katherine Swift, 2009. *''Patrick Swift 1927-83'', Veronica Jane O’Mara (ed.), Gandon Editions, Kinsale, 1993. *''Patrick Swift: An Irish Painter in Portugal'', Gandon Editions, 2001. *AA Algarve Guide (AA Spiral Guides), p. 28-29; Swift family and ceramics. *Artne

*Frommers, Algarve Trave

*Portugal, David J. J. Evan

*Richard Neubersch, Algarve Report, p. 5

*Algarve Inspiration

*Algarve Resident: Porches Pottery- The Inside Stor

*''Patrick Kavanagh: A Biography'', Antoinette Quinn, Gill & MacMillan Ltd, 2001. *Algarve Resident, Anniversary Part

*Image

*Algarve, Top 10, Eyewitness Travel, p. 91, p. 79. {{ISBN, 978-1-4053-3973-5 *Estudio Destra today, run by Roger Metcalf

*Faux door at Estudio Destra Image

*Image

*Algarve Welcome Magazin

Ceramics manufacturers of Portugal Art pottery