Herend, Museum and Minifactory
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June 23
Written July 4
Dear Friends and Families,
Because we started so early back home in Pommersfelden, we managed to squeeze in one our "must see's" on just our first day: the famous Herend porcelain factory, just outside our first Hungarian destination, Veszprem.
There are two parts of a visit to Herend, a museum and a "minifactory". The pictures below show what we saw and we would certainly recommend the stop, although you may need to get there earlier in the day than we did, since the shops selling the local product had already closed by the time we finished our tours. Darn.
John and Marianne
The entrance to the Herend Museum. |
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Plates from the 1840's at the beginning to the Herend production |
The "Victoria" pattern, created for the England's Queen Victoria and the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. This is perhaps the most famous Herend pattern |
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A modern vase, about two feet tall, celebrating old victories.
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Years ago, when Marianne was last here, the factory tour was in the real factory. Nowadays, there is a special "minifactory" where visitors can see all the artistic steps in creation of the Herend pieces. | |
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The first demonstration showed how a clay soup was poured into a cup mold. About ten minutes later, the excess soup was poured out and the raw, thin cup removed from the mold. |
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Other cups, as well as plates and saucers, are built from a flat disk of clay. The tortilla-looking disk is placed in a mold and pressed and cut to the desired shape. All the steps need to be done in a certain time frames so that the raw clay has just the right softness. |
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Figurines are first molded in small pieces and then joined simply by wetting the joining surfaces. |
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One of the signature styles of Herend is this lace-like surface. Each of the hundreds of holes are cut by hand, with no chance to repair an error. The small vase that was being worked on would take eight mistake-free hours to finish. |
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Flower decorations are also made by hand. The artist forms the petals in her palm and then joins them one at a time to form a very lifelike rose. |
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These candy dishes are also made by hand, from long pieces of "spaghetti". Each strand is laid in place, without a pattern other than previously completed pieces. |
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Painting is also by hand at Herend. Color powders are made from various metals, including purple derived from gold. The powders are suspended in oil and brushed carefully within the lines of the standard patterns. A large dish such as the one on the left might take a full week to paint. |
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Herend Mini-Factory Museum website: http://www.porcelanium.com/eng/index.htm
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