NOTES on. design // pots of inspiration

A trip to the idyllic isle of Skyros provided pot joy at every turn. If only my suitcase was big enough for all the terracotta, ceramic, and cobblestoned delights I want to now fill my garden with

I haven’t been on a hot holiday for so long, so nearly two weeks between Athens and the beautiful Greek isle of Skyros in the Sporades didn’t disappoint. The sun, sea, and sand were at the top of the list of earthly delights needed to restore and unite mind, body, and spirit but it was also worth the two flights to get there just to soak up the wonderful array of terracotta pots, painted ceramic tiles, marble cobblestones, and the brighter than brighter whitewash that provides the perfect backdrop to it all – that and the Klein blue sky.

The evening of the full moon we ventured into a ceramics store above Magazia beach to examine the wares and were given a tour of the studio to see if there was anything on the back shelves that we might like too. Among the rows and rows of beautifully glazed, painted, and fired pots was a huge new kiln that the owner would use to bake the larger of the terracotta pots, some grooved like a coil pot, others embellished with traditional white painted designs detailing simplistic birds, fish, and flowers along with a hand-made fluted edge.

Over in the Faltaits Museum there were pots galore in the artist’s studio, the traditional Skyrian house, the terrace, and the walk up to the museum itself, a terracotta fiesta of herbs. Inspired by the simplicity of the whitewashed houses and natural pigmentation used on the ceramics that were embedded into the walls and floors, I bought a couple of hand-painted tiles around which to style my kitchen, imagining the plants that I would juxtapose with them.

The walk to the museum through the backstreets of Chora was similarly lined with pots and tiles, each its own unique symphony of pot shapes and styles, some housing succulent agaves or aeoniums, others a large olive or fig tree, in some cases joined together at the top to make an arch from one pot to the other.

Vertical planting is an intrinsic part of the design here, where climbing and twining shrubs and flowers adorn walls or are trained over wooden pergolas to form a shady canopy. Looking up to the azure blue sky, the sunset, or the stars, depending what time of day or night it is, you first must navigate grape-laden vines, hot pink bougainvillea bracts, just-ripening lime fruits or pomegranates, or large starry jasmine flowers sending wafts of fragrance over the hot cobbled streets at evening time.

These streets also house several herb shops where dried oregano and thyme add a musky aromatic layer of scent to the island’s perfume. My Greek friend Vassiliki immediately made a beeline for the owner of one of the shops, leaving with several bunches of freshly picked mint. On the day I departed, more pots stuffed into the small crevices in my suitcase, she also presented me with two pots of herbs from his store, which I can’t wait to make some herbal potions with.

I will be back to claim more of these Skyrian pots but in the meantime the inspiration gained from seeing all these wares and wonders in their natural habitat is enough to keep me going for a good while. As soon as I have full access to my garden I will be assimilating some of those island vibes.