Bolesławiec, Poland: pottery shopping

On a recent trip to Boleslawiec, Poland with the spouses' club, we visited a bunch of pottery shops! While I am not a huge fan of Polish pottery (blue is just not my color), I was intrigued to see the many patterns and find out what all the hype is about. 

At one of our stops, we had the pleasure of seeing behind the scenes for a little tour. Ceramika Andar showed us the process, starting with the big slabs of clay they begin their work with. They use the clay to make slip (a watered down clay) to use in slip-casting their mugs, plates and other pieces. 

We walked through the drying room where pieces are drying out in anticipation of their bisque firing prior to being glazed. 

The ladies were hard at work getting the pieces cleaned up so they would be ready for the kiln. 

One of the ladies in my group took this picture and I just loved the close up of the plaster molds and some of the little creamer jugs. 

This ceramic shop is a family affair. The father, wife, son and daughter all work in the shop. This is the wife. She was hard at work painting Christmas trees. It was really cool to see how quickly she was able to finish each one. 

This was our guide through the workshop. 

Another popular shop in town is Andy Polish Pottery. This was actually our very first stop of our shopping excursion. They had a wide selection of pieces. I picked up some Jack o' Lanterns, Christmas ornament and little sleeping kitty figurine here. 

This is a small snapshot of the selection at Andy's. In addition to this, there was a whole other room filled with pieces.