At last, I am able to update! It will take several entries to catch up, but I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed living them. . . I begin with a factory of sculptures of breathtaking beauty, the product of great care. . . Lladró.
Lladró makes all of its works of art in La Ciudad de Porcelana, the City of Porcelain, a complex on the outskirts of Valencia. I had vaguely heard of the company before, and even seen a pair of figurines, but I had no idea how extensive the process to make them really was. This explained the beauty of the complex, with its own swimming pool and human chess board--artists of that degree deserve to be treated well by the company.
The tour began with a few films on the inspiration and sculpting of the original models. After that, we entered the factory itself, where sadly, photography was not permitted. To me, it looked less like a factory than a spacious, well'lit workshop. We watched as they poured the moulds and opened them, taking great care to preserve the detail of the more delicate features.
Then, we watched as women cleaned the pieces and cemented them together with liquid porcelein. This is how the figurine takes its eventual shape. The next station was where the figurines were being painted, everything but the face. They paint with transparent paints that later change colors in the oven, so an orange cat will look purple when it is first painted--very fascinating. Then we saw one of the women painting faces. This is very difficult, as it is done with liquid porcelein to add depth to the expressions, and demands a very fine brush.
My favorite station, though, was the one where they make the tiny porcelain tiny porcelain flowers for the sculptures by hand. Watching her roll it and shape it was mesmerizing. I could never dream of being able to create something that small, detailed, and beautiful so quickly.
The guide led us out of the factory and into a museum of almost all of their pieces. I was amazed at their detail and life-like beauty. Naturally, this was reflected in the price--there was one piece going for 120,000 euros--but the quality was reflected in it. My favorite, I think, was not that one, but a series of three sculptures, each showing a couple. It showed the growth of love by flowers spreading over them throughout the series until in the last set, they were covered in bright flowers. The effect was breathtakingly lovely.
We went to an exposition of slightly less expensive pieces after that, but it was still out of any of our price ranges. I find it a wonder they can sell such things in this economy--though the beauty deserves the price.
After that, we went to an excellent horchatería, Daniel´s, which had wonderfully cool iced horchata and warm fartones, fresh from the oven. This is a very traditional Valencian snack, and Daniel´s is widely recognized as one of the best places in all of Valencia to get it, especially the fartones, which they bake fresh. I enjoyed this immensely, wishing I could return. But then again, there were even more delightful things to enjoy that week, which turned out to be one of the busiest of the year.
As for now, things are nice and slow, and I´ve been filling my afternoons with walks through the trails behind the school (this afternoon I had the fun of running into not just a rabbit, but a snake). I can now definitively say that I will be back in the States in the wee hours of the morning on July 30. Until then, I hope that those of you who have tests do well, and that those of you who are in graduation weekends enjoy the celebrations, and that everyone else has an absolutely wonderful summer.
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