Studio collection within 48 h
Lady Blue

Studio · Bolesławiec

Hands, clay and cobalt

Four chapters, two firings and one person behind every piece. This is how everything in this shop is made.

Manifesto

We don’t manufacture. We fire, paint and sign – one piece at a time, in Bolesławiec, by a hand you can see on the base.

Process

Four chapters, two firings

  1. Hands shaping a mug on the potter’s wheel
    01

    Throwing

    Clay from the local Bolesławiec deposits goes onto the wheel wet and shapeless. Under the thumb, the wall rises to four millimetres – any thicker and it cracks in the kiln, any thinner and it won’t hold a handle.

    No moulds. Every mug has its own circumference, different by measurable millimetres, and then spends a week drying on the rack.

    7 days of drying

  2. Pieces after the first firing, set out on a kiln shelf
    02

    First firing

    The dried piece goes into the kiln for its bisque firing. The clay loses the last of its water and hardens enough to be picked up without worry – but it still drinks in paint like blotting paper.

    From every kiln load, one or two pieces don’t make it. Cracks only show when the kiln is opened, never before.

    900°C · 8 hours in the kiln

  3. 03

    Painting

    The cobalt goes on under the glaze, straight onto the raw bisque – it can’t be corrected, and it can’t be washed off.

    “Hearts” are a sponge stamp and two brushstrokes; “Capybaras” are drawn freehand. Each piece is painted by one person: from the first dot to the signature on the base.

    3 strokes for one heart

  4. The kiln opened after the second firing – pieces in full colour
    04

    Glazing and second firing

    Dipping in the glaze takes two seconds – any longer and the coat runs unevenly.

    Then the second firing: fourteen hours including cooling. Only in this fire does the matt grey cobalt turn into the deep blue you see in the shop photos.

    1240°C · 14 hours in the kiln

The founder at the painting table in the Lady Blue studio

Founder

“every heart comes out a little different – and that’s the point”

Founder of the studio

She opened the studio in 2019 with one wheel and one pattern – “Hearts”: a sponge stamp and two brushstrokes. Today she paints less often, as most of her day goes into teaching the team the same rhythm.

One rule has stayed: from the first stamp to the signature, a piece stays with one person. That is why the base shows a human hand, not a production line.

  • Since 2019
  • 5 patterns
  • 76 pieces in the catalogue

Studio

Four metres from wheel to kiln

The potter’s wheel and wet clay in the morning
Raw pieces drying on boards by the window
A rack of pieces waiting for their first firing
Stamping cobalt dots onto the bisque with a sponge
The painting table – brushes, sponges and jars of cobalt
Dipping a mug into a bucket of cream glaze
An open kiln with fired pieces inside
Inside the Lady Blue studio in Bolesławiec

Visit us

Our doors are open

  • Tue & Thu, by appointment

    Studio visits

    The wheel, both kilns and the painting table share one room – you can see a piece’s whole journey in a quarter of an hour. Please write a day ahead: we don’t let anyone in while the kiln is being opened.

  • Mon–Fri 9–17 · Sat 10–14

    Studio shop

    The full range, plus a shelf of seconds: pieces with small irregularities in the glaze, sold only on site at a third off.

Bolesławiec

Cobalt under the glaze is a local technique, not our invention – the town has been painting pottery for generations, and it is still a living craft, not a museum piece. We work in the same few streets as the workshops where our own teachers learned.

ul. Garncarska 12 · 59-700 BolesławiecStudio shop: Mon–Fri 9:00–17:00, Sat 10:00–14:00. Studio visits: Tue and Thu, by prior appointment.

Patterns

See the patterns made here

See the patterns →Build a set →