how is P O T T E R Y manufactured?

Here is a beautiful video of how this pottery is made:
How is pottery manufactured?
{click on the above link to watch, it is just four minutes long}

Here every dish is manufactured by hand from beginning to end.

We were here in this factory, with these workers, touching this pottery. 
It was jaw-dropping fascination for us.

Knowing something is hand made and seeing it made by those hands was an eye-opening experience for us. Speaking no English, it was all smiles and nods with the workers. This man graciously stepped aside and invited me up to his place at the wheel.

It was the perfect day for pottery shopping.

I had already mapped out the stores we would go to and had a plan of the order to go. We were pleasantly surprised to be almost the only ones shopping which makes it so much more enjoyable. A personal factory tour was not on my itinerary.

Thank goodness for flexibility and having an open mind.

Now, I would highly recommend anyone going to Poland to shop to take the tour. It changed the way we feel about the beautiful items we purchased.

With floor to ceiling of pottery and some rooms being super small- even a couple bodies in a single store is too crowded.

One of our first stops ended up being our favorite and made the whole experience the difference between buying it on a shelf and buying it from the factory in Poland.

Manufaktura is a larger store connected to their factory. They also have two outlet stores in town which also happened to be our favorites even before we knew that everything came from their factory.

After shopping around for a little while, I asked the guy working there {seemed to be a manager} if we could have a quick tour. I didn't want it to take our whole day {we were on a mission}, but we could see the potters through the window and our curiosity was piqued.

He had someone cover the front desk and was quite happy to take us on what ended up being one of the highlights of our trip. We felt like we had a backstage pass to a rock concert. I asked if I could take pictures. Initially, he said I could but not faces.

After taking a couple pictures, he gave me the go-ahead that it was acceptable to take any pictures that I would like. After scaring one of the first workers with the flash of my camera {he jumped}, they warmed up and were fine with our presence and our camera.

Walking into the painting room was what I imagined walking into a factory a century ago would have been like. The girls were lined up in rows of tables painting side by side. As we entered the room, there was talking and giggling.

As soon as they noticed we were there it got quiet. They stayed quite solemn for the duration {maybe 10 minutes} of our visit. We did not move around much, I think we were just fascinated by what was going on in there.

Curious as to how much they are paid for their labor, I asked our new friend if the girls make a decent salary. He let us know wages are not as high as in Germany {as if the Germans are rich}, but they do alright.

He also said many of them are immigrants from Kazakhstan, Hungary, Czech Republic and Lithuania, so the wages are much better than they could ever receive in their neighboring countries.
They use paint brushes and special sponges to hand stamp the pottery. They colors are faded as they paint them on, then brighten after they glaze and fire it up. Nothing fancy. Plain and simple.

They were so fast.
Their designs are beautiful.

They have traditional designs, and special patterns called UNIKAT.
UNIKAT involves much more color and detail usually signed on the bottom with the designer's name. We now understand completely why they are more expensive. They are truly works of art.
 
I could have watched all day.

Moving on to the one girl dipping each piece of pottery in the glaze was incredible to us as well. The guy giving our tour told us it is all natural and pointed out that she was not even wearing gloves. 

The more we watched, the more we loved it.
We meaning both Jim and I.
We were equally intrigued.

At the end of our tour, we walked outside to see the clay in the back, pulled from the nearby rivers. 

It was time to wrap up our shopping and dinner.
With no time to stop for lunch, we were so hungry.

Polish specialties for dinner did not disappoint....