Surrounded by mass-produced ‘personalised’ gadgets, we collect things to which we develop varying degrees of attachment. They rarely have anything to do with the latest technology and more with our personal history and our relationship with the world around us at the time. In fact, the objects we surround ourselves with tell more about us than perhaps we wish to reveal. The impulse which made us pick up a piece of clothing, music or applied art more often than not could be described as irrational, intuitive, spur of the moment. We feel a sudden connection with them that reflects our mood, longing, a sudden and distant memory…
It is perhaps because the creators of these objects experienced similar feelings while making them and selected certain forms, colours or musical notes wishing to evoke a desired reaction.
I was recently musing about this while preparing reports for the Achica Living portal about Polish glass and pottery artists. My first subject was an artist who creates unique, often one-off pieces while the second was a pottery manufacturer producing hand-made and decorated collections for the mass market.
Dąbrowka Huk is an artist who expresses herself through glass. She is best known for her large glass plates, distinctive by their vibrant colours (created by fusing metal oxides with glass) and subtle drawings which resemble the work of Marc Chagall. Women are her favourite subject – solitary and dreaming or nestled in the arms of strong men, shyly covering their nudity.
She is also inspired by the beauty of everyday life and her surroundings. “I don’t seek strong and grand themes. I don’t try to answer difficult questions. In my work I try to stop the moment – a balmy afternoon and things beyond time and matter, that are located in a different reality.”
She lives in a village near Opole, in south west Poland, with two small children and shares her house with three cats, a family of weasels and several nests of swallows. It’s perhaps not surprising that her glass works, which also include bowls, glass figures as well as chess and checkers sets, feature birds, cats, angels and devils (though “devils don’t sell very well”).
When she says: “The places I live and work shaped my perception of the world, and these experiences I processed through my personal filter,” you clearly see her world and begin to understand her work.
Pottery from Bolesławiec tells a different story. Its historical roots go back to the 19th century, to one of the largest ceramics manufacturing plants that belonged to Hugo Reinhold and was located in Lower Silesia, southwestern Poland. The successor of its tradition is now the Zaklady Ceramiczne Bolesławiec. Over the years Bolesławiec pottery has undergone numerous transformations in terms of form and design. However it is still manufactured using the original technologies such as hand rolling and hand decorating with stamps and brush. The distinctive feature of its best known design is the cobalt blue colour of the glaze decorated which the so-called peacock’s eye.
Nowadays the hand-painted designs on the Bolesławiec pottery include geometrical and floral patterns, and the compositions are either monochromatic or multicolour utilizing a broad palette of blues, greens, yellows, browns and reds. These unique patterns together with the distinctive ‘feel’ and look of the natural material make the pottery very unique, but at the same time easily recognizable on the crowded ceramics market.
Each new collection is the result of a joint effort of a team of artists. New shapes of dishes and new designs originate in two different workshops headed by distinguished designers. Then every semi-finished product acquires its distinctive look in the hands of artists-decorators.
The offer of Zakłady Ceramiczne Bolesławiec now include over a thousand designs which decorate tea and coffee sets, serving and roasting dishes, even such items as candle sticks and Christmas decorations. Although traditionally made, they meet the requirements of modern living. All products are dishwasher safe and can be used in conventional and microwave ovens.
The ceramics from Bolesławiec have many fans in Poland and abroad (even as far as Japan and Korea) who love its designs and the ‘tactile’ feel of its pottery. They patiently ‘hunt’ new releases to add them to their collections in which every item is truly unique. My favourite coffee mug from Bolesławiec sports a stamp to certify this, together with the name of its decorator – like a true piece of art.