Lladró

I did buy myself a Lladró figurine when I went to visit the factory. She doesn't have a name, yet, but she is very slender and tiny. Fine-boned, one might say.


















She makes my other figurine look a bit statuesque!

but, I did buy her specifically because she was the closest one I found that matched up with the one I already had.

and she was within the right price range.

and she has that lovely string of pearls.

I think she is the slightly wilder younger sister, although she is apparently Ingenue, according to the catalogue.





The tour is a fascinating experience. Lladró is made nowhere else in the world except at this one location just outside Valencia. You get to go behind the scenes and see the women (they are all women, who probably have smaller hands and fingers and possibly more patience than men) at their tables forming and attaching and painting...

The artistic team creates pieces in clay following traditional sculpting techniques. The original mould is then fragmented and each piece is reproduced exactly using porcelain moulds.  Even the hands are of several moulds with the fingers and wrists and forearm and upper arm later attached using the same porcelain to create the right sense of flow and movement. When you see the painstakingly elaborate process that is involved, you can appreciate why they are so expensive.

I went early so I could wander around the showroom beforehand. I was slightly disappointed that there were not more pieces I wished to buy, but then this is not really something I want to collect as much as I enjoy looking at them and admiring the delicacy of the features. I have the one lady and love her and am pleased to have found another to make a pair.