Where Craft Still Matters: A Visit to Villa Bologna Pottery

A Workshop with Memory in Its Walls

On the edge of Attard, behind citrus trees and sun-weathered stone, Villa Bologna Pottery operates at a different pace. Time here isn’t wasted. It’s kneaded, brushed, shaped, and fired. The pace is part of the product, with every object holding a distinct echo of eras passed, coupled with an older rhythm.

There’s a faint echo of a couture fashion house in the way pieces develop, seasonal in spirit, loyal to a house style but open to collaboration. “We really enjoy working with other artists,” says Villa Bologna Pottery co-owner, Sophie Edwards. “It opens up the work in ways we wouldn’t have reached on our own.” Their most recent collaboration was with Kenneth Zammit Tabona, Malta’s renowned illustrator.

To mark this collaboration, they hosted an event to launch Mr Zammit Tabona’s new collection for Villa Bologna Pottery.  Resplendent in blues and hues, these pieces are evocative of everything that both Mr Zammit Tabona and Villa Bologna Pottery stand for. “We take a lot from what’s around us,” Sophie explains. “The sea, the architecture, the patterns in the villa gardens. It’s all there in the designs.” And you can see and feel this in every piece. It’s as if they speak fluent Mediterranean!

Villa Bologna Pottery owners and Kenneth Zammit Tabona

Malta Drawn in Clay

The studio itself belongs to the de Trafford family, though the real inheritance is cultural. Sophie and Rowley Edwards, working with Jasper de Trafford since 2020, haven’t revived the brand so much as breathed new life into it.

Sophie’s connection to Malta runs deeper than mere ‘business’.  “My mother is Maltese, so I spent much of my early childhood here”, and it’s clear that the villa and the pottery are bound to those memories, sun, colour, the garden…all of it. It’s this early familiarity that now guides the work.

Pencil, Paint, and Patience

Nothing begins with spreadsheets or a brief. The ideas start with paper and pencil. “Most of our designs begin with sketches or watercolours,” Sophie says. “Then we see how they sit on clay. The colours change in the kiln, which sometimes surprises us a little.” Sketch to final glaze can take half a year, so this is not a place for fast results.

the original artwork for the plates

Craft Without Shortcuts

Every plate, jug or bowl passes through at least six sets of hands. “No transfers, no decals,” Sophie tells me. “Nothing is printed. It’s all drawn and painted by hand.”

The approach is an act of will, really. Villa Bologna doesn’t chase the market, doesn’t race for volume. “We believe in making things that last, sustainably”, she says. In essence, they preserve traditions of craftsmanship. “Our pieces are things that are lived with, used, and passed down.” But this is no sermon about sustainability, just the quiet conviction that fast and cheap simply aren’t good enough.

Not Just Beautiful, but Familiar

But Sophie doesn’t talk about ‘pieces’ the way a gallery might. Her voice softens when she talks about how people use them. “We hope there’s a feeling of joy or comfort in them,” she says. “A link to a memory, or a place. Maybe it’s a plate someone uses every morning, and that’s what we love: the idea of the work becoming part of someone’s life.”

And it does feel like that. The designs don’t show off. They settle in. You get the sense they’ll still be there long after ‘Etsy-Esque’ online trends have vanished.

KZT collection

Villa Bologna Pottery is a Brand with Soul

There’s no need to overthink what Villa Bologna Pottery is. It’s not a lifestyle. It’s not ‘curated’. It’s the sound of a brush on glaze in a sunlit room, the mark of one person’s hand meeting another’s table. The company is a marque with 100 years of history behind it. Their work and their studio have been lived in, looked after, with each piece handed forward. Which, in this age, is not just rare, it’s radical.

villa bologna mirror sign