We Went To Visit Portmeirion! | Gifts from Handpicked

Visiting Portmeirion Pottery!

Portmeirion pottery was first created out of the love of ceramics by Susan and her husband Euan. Susan Williams-Ellis was the daughter of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, who was the architect and creator of the Portmeirion village in North Wales. In 1960 Susan and her husband purchased two pottery decorating factories in Stoke on Trent which eventually combined to create what Portmeirion is today, all of their pottery is still created and decorated in these same factories! 

Portmeirion has always created high quality and fantastic pottery, to include their infamous Botanic Garden range as well as their collaboration with well known brands such as Wrendale Designs and Sara Miller. We had the pleasure of visiting the Stoke on Trent Portmeirion factory and the history we learnt about was awe-inspiring. If you want to learn more about Susan's story and the history of Portmeirion, you can explore their website through the link.

Here you can see the outside of the Portmeirion factory, it is open 7 days a week and offers a range of their current stock. You can find out more about their Stoke on Trent factory below:

https://www.portmeirion.co.uk/storelocator/stoke

Inside the Factory!

When visiting the factory, we were mind blown by the way handles and detailing were added to the pottery. As you can see from the images above, there were multiple workers taking time adding the handles onto mugs and other crockery. You can also see on the image the mugs being transported on a conveyor belt for easy transportation. There were a variety of tools that they used to create these fantastic mugs and the process was incredible to watch! 

Once the items are designed, created and sculpted to perfection, they are put into a very hot kiln ready for firing! This is how all of those amazing mugs and intricate jugs, plates and saucers are created. Once they are finished in the kiln they are stacked on pallets ready for glazing and their amazing designs. 

The Royal Worcester Wrendale Designs Range

Royal Worcester was established in 1751 and includes a luxury and premium range of crockery that we know you'll love. Made from fine bone china, the Royal Worcester collection features well known brands such as Wrendale Designs, creating country themed designs and rustic patterns. When we went to go visit Portmeirion we had a look at the Royal Worcester stands which were filled to the brim with fantastic Wrendale Designs goodness! These include the Wrendale Designs bone china mugs, the Wrendale Designs Christmas baubles, Christmas plates and more!

The Wrendale Designs New In Range

Whilst we were at Portmeirion we had the absolute delight of seeing a Wrendale Designs representative there! They were show casing the brand new range for 2024 which included plush key rings, flower jugs, coffee cups and more! There was so much to get excited about, and lots of orders to be made, so keep your eye out for the brand new Wrendale Designs range on our website when we launch it. We know you'll love it just as much as we do, it was wonderful to see all the newness in real life, which made us even more excited than before!

We hope you have enjoyed learning a little bit more about Portmeirion and their pottery, we certainly did! It is always so interesting and eye opening to go and visit our suppliers. We love keeping close relationships with our suppliers and seeing how the final product is produced, we then get to share it with our customers! We had such a good day out and loved meeting the Portmeirion representatives as well as some of the team from Wrendale Designs. There are some incredibly exciting products that are being released this year and into the next, so keep your eyes peeled for new Portmeirion items as well as Wrendale Designs.