Okay, so I broke down and went back to Poland-
for polish pottery that is! AND I got to take my
sweetie pie with me! AND he was glad he came!
Cody was sure his Dad was going to come home
having had a very, very boring weekend shopping for
dishes and would call and check up on his Dad! Ha!
Someday Cody will have a cute little wife and he
will endure a lot of things to make her happy!
So, what usually should take 7 hours to drive took us 9.
Leaving at 3:30 pm and hitting rush hour around a
few cities and then hitting some construction sights
on two lane highways did not help our time.
However, we did arrive safely by midnight.
Funny sidenote. Our GPS was not very clear about
the directions and we ended up flagging a taxi driver
down to help us get to our AWESOME hotel down
the road about 5 kilometers.
So, after a great nights rest in the biggest room of
the hotel we were off to do some SERIOUS shopping!
This is the first store we went to. A very small one with
the painters already working their trade.
None of them could speak English
but that's okay they could tell how
much we admire their craftwork.
This artist just finished up painting
this bowl ready to be put in the fire.
They work quickly and exactly,
it is amazing to see them creating.
The first worker is starting a new bowl.
You can make out the shelf above where
their finished and unfished projects are.
Onto the next shop. I took Jim into this one so he
could see where I had previously purchased some
of this beautiful pattern for Chandra and me.
One of our visits was to a large store where we did
purchase things as well as go on a tour of their plant.
They are a much larger company than the first one
visited so it was interesting to see the whole process.
Katie was Jim and I's personal guide. Her English
was pretty good, but she said her Russian was better,
too bad Bryce wasn't with us! This first shot shows
all the formed clay products that will soon be painted.
This man has a mold for a medium sized bowl
in front of him. He throws a set amount of clay
into the spinning mold and the wet clay forms to
the mold. It is then set aside to dry for about 11
hours before being painted. This is one of the jobs
in the plant that is always manned every 24 hours!
This woman wipes off the dried mold after
it has set for 11 hours. Also she will add
handles or extra pieces if needed at this point.
This is another 24 hour a day job!
This woman has the same job as well,
she is placing handles on these mugs.
Once the molds have dried, been wiped off and extra
pieces added on they are put in this oven to cook for
7 hours at 800 degrees celsius.
Outside we see the bins of clay mined from the hills
about 30 kilometers away. We thought it interesting
that any clay forms already burned could be reused,
as long as they had not been painted yet.
Inside this wearhouse are all the pieces that need to
be painted, as well as those already painted, waiting
to be cooked in a very hot kiln again.
Here are some pieces painted waiting to be
dipped in glaze and then into the kiln they will go.
We stopped in the room with the painting
artists. They create their own designs to go
on the pottery. Here is one look at a pattern
on this sponge used to paint the patterns.
The piece they paint is placed on a
spinning wheel that they turn by hand.
Finished work.
We saw this artist create one project from
start to finish. You can just see the green
line she is placing in the inside rim of the bowl.
She then added 4 other designs in the bottom of the bowl.
She worked so smoothly, quickly and confidently!
Here she is placing more of the brown flower
pattern around the inside of the bowl.
Now for the flower vines and dots around
the interior. Just BEAUTIFUL!
It takes about 20 minutes to paint each
of these bowl patterns.
And they have shifts of painters working
24 hours a day!
All this pottery has been painted and dipped
in the glaze used to coat the pottery, which is
why they appear white in color.
These kilns will cook the painted and glazed
pottery at 1200 degrees celsius for about 11 hours.
It was a great tour! We definitely appreciaete our
polish pottery pieces we have even more!
Jim enjoyed a view of the newly rennovated
square in the center of Boleslawiec.
Always those interesting European colored buildings!
I was noticing the little, tiny walkout "decks" on the
apartment buildings. Just enough to hang some flowers on!
More interesting colors on these apartment buildings.
Here are the brightest ones!
We enjoyed a walk through a little park off the main square.
In the park were several tables of men all playing one type
of card game or another. It was a Friday night at about
5:30 pm. Wonder if their wives were looking for them?
On the square was a fun underground fountain that
we are sure is used all summer long in the warmer days
by children wanting to have a fun way to cool off.
They would pop up randomly in all kinds of patterns.
We SO ENJOYED our stay at the "Blue Beetroot" Hotel!
This was one of the highlights. As I mentioned in a previous
blog post this was a barn from 1785 rennovated into a cozy,
charming hotel. We would have loved to stay here for a week!
We were lucky enough to get the largest room in the hotel.
Here it is lit up a bit in the evening. The original beams on
the ceiling and in the walls gave it such a warm, cozy feel.
This is the room the next morning. It was wonderful
to wake up in it, two mornings in a row. We had the
windows open to be cooled by the breezes while listening to
birds chirping, roosters crowing, and an occassional dog bark.
Of course on the way out of town there were the last
minute things I forgot about! ;-)
This is the outside of the first store at the top of this post.
LOVE IT!!!
This really was my last stop!
This is the store Cody picked out his lasagna dish in.
What a great trip!
I'm ready to come back, I can think of one more thing....
