The Wild Berry design with its bold and confident marks is one of our more simple and reserved designs. It has been in use for a long time dating back at least as far as the early 1970s. The design is a classical meander pattern, with stems and leaves in one colour and a smattering of round berries in another.
A loose interpretation
Though the berries in this design do not necessarily draw directly from any individual plant, the Algarve landscape is full of wild berries. From the berries of the ubiquitous ‘moita’ bushes (pistacia lentiscus l.), with their familiar scent and plump rounded leaves that are reminiscent of this design, or the yellow berried ‘caril-das-areias’ found on the cliff tops that smell of aromatic spices, to the famous berries of the arbutus tree, known locally as the ‘medronho’ berry, which are used to make the famous spirit of the same name, this design represents them all to some degree.
A sense of tradition
It is Rosa Lima, the most experienced and longest serving painter at the pottery today, who specialises in this design. Rosa has decorated with this design for over forty years. With her steady and confident hand, she imbues each piece with the sense of tradition, history and continuity that is our hallmark.
The pieces in our webshop feature vines and leaves in two shades of blue: a rich and vibrant cobalt, with a softer pale blue accent. The many yellow berries with small brown centres enhance the shades of blue and add warmth to the overall design.
This combination of blue and yellow is very traditional and familiar in Portuguese ceramics, it dates back several centuries to the Golden Age of Portuguese ‘azulejos’. It is a pleasing complementary colour pairing that is reminiscent of a by-gone era.
Natural but not floral
Wild Berry notably it does not include any flowers - for those who are not enamoured of floral designs but still enjoy natural forms, this could be a perfect option.
