Handcrafted porcelain

The strength of the AS Ćmielów brand lies in the tradition of handmade porcelain production.

In the world, there are only a few manufactories that engage in traditional porcelain production and hand decorating of products. We are delighted to belong to this elite group of companies.

The manual production process imparts exceptional value to our products.

We are pleased that among you are enthusiasts of our porcelain. We assure you that we make every effort to ensure that our products are of the highest quality. Through collaboration with top designers, we blend tradition with modernity to create miniature works of art for you.

It all begins with a project from which models and master and working molds are created.

Production time in our manufactory takes about 4 weeks. Products are crafted in successive stages, and when ready, they are transferred to the finished goods warehouse.

**STAGES OF AS ĆMIELOW PORCELAIN PRODUCTION:**

1. **Casting**

2. **Underglaze Marking (Marks protecting products from counterfeiting)**

3. **Drying of Products**

4. **Cleaning**

5. **Bisque Firing of Porcelain**

6. **Quality Control of Products**

7. **Glazing**

8. **Second Firing of Glazed Products**

9. **Quality Control of Products**

10. **Hand Painting of Products**

11. **Third Firing of Decorated Products**

12. **Additional Firings in case of multiple colors, gold, or platinum decoration**

13. **Quality Control**

14. **Hand Casting of Products using Working Molds**

1. Molded product (dark gray color of still plastic porcelain mass)

2. Dried and cleaned product (very fragile and easily breakable during cleaning)

3. Porcelain figurine after the first firing, known as "bisque"

4. Figurine fired after glazing (covered with a shiny layer of glaze)

Products manufactured at the AS Ćmielów Porcelain Factory are well protected against counterfeiting. The applied logo and additional safeguards allow for easy identification.

All products produced after 1996 bear the new logo of the AS Ćmielów Porcelain Factory, registered in the Polish Patent Office in 1995 under number 153538. The logo is a red rectangle with large, classic white letters AS and the word Ćmielów in black.

The primary security measure on most figurines is a pink, square seal made of colored mass. It is separately cast from a plaster mold and attached to the raw, wet product. The seal mass is prepared in a special room, where it is colored with four high-temperature pigments in strictly pharmacy proportions. The entire process is a factory secret.

Another safeguard is the underglaze AS marks and the number of the employee making the figurine, applied to the wet product.

Products with marks are subsequently glazed. After glazing, semi-finished products go to the painting workshop, where painters hand-paint them with ceramic paints or decorate them with liquid gold or platinum.

This is a very labor-intensive process. The time for decorating individual products varies, depending on the complexity of the design. Multicolored products are fired several times, depending on the complexity of the painting.

Each figurine also has its individual, unique number assigned according to the marking system. The number consists of three different digits/numbers, where each denotes: catalog number, consecutive number of the product produced in a given year, and the year of manufacture. This designation is always entered on the certificate of authenticity, which is included with the product.

Cups, mugs, sets, and other products do not have individual numbers. They are marked with the red logo of the AS Ćmielów Porcelain Factory.

Any decoration of AS Ćmielów Porcelain Factory products without the required license is prohibited.

We invite everyone who wants to see the production process with their own eyes to visit the Experience Museum of Porcelain in the old manufactory  in Ćmielów.

www.turystyka.cmielow.com.pl