Barbara Davidson - "Biography"

From the ages of 2 to 22, Barbara Davidson lived in Inveraray, in the West of Scotland. After attending Inveraray Grammar School and Oban High School, she studied Ceramics at Glasgow School of Art. After 2 years of teaching art and pottery, she decided to set up in business with her fiancee - Brian. Premises were located in an old dairy in Larbert, which had enough space to make pottery, and build racing engines for various competition cars.

The first person to find the new pottery was Bill Williams, of NB Gallery, Gartocharn - nowadays producing the famous and still free "ARTWORK" magazine. ( www.artwork.co.uk ) Many more customers followed, and demand grew, so the training of an apprentice became a necessity. Alisdair Kettles was the first, and he stayed for many years. 8 others trained with Barbara over the years until 1993. Since then she has enjoyed the experience of working on her own, concentrating more on individual customer requirements, and variety, rather than quantity production.

One of her major commissions in the early 1970's was a large ceramic mural for Queen Street Station in Glasgow. This is situated in the ladies waiting room, and to my knowledge is still on view at the time of writing. Many other murals were made in the 70's and 80's, mostly for restaurants, which unfortunately have long since gone. Specially made tableware for was also very popular at that time as well, for places such as Le Provencal in Glasgow, and Cousteau's and Vito's in Edinburgh. The Hatherly in Falkirk still uses Barbara's pottery in the restaurant. ( phone 01324 625328)

She was a founder member of the Scottish Potter's Association in the early 1970's and chairman of The Scottish Craft Centre in the late 1980's.

She has had solo and group Exhibitions at The Scottish Design Centre, The Art Gallery and Museum Kelvingrove, the NB Gallery - Gartocharn, Crowsteps, The Stirling Gallery, The Scottish Craft Centre, The Lillie Art Gallery, The Henderson Gallery, The Nancy Smillie Gallery, Callendar House Falkirk, and many others over the years.

Barbara Davidson also designs for other manufacturers, which is why you will see the name on different products.

A genuine BARBARA DAVIDSON hand-thrown pot can only be obtained from the pottery - they are not sold anywhere else, but can happily be sent to parts of the world where Royal Mail delivers.