Valencia and the Lladró Factory

I will answer your first question right now; yes, the title of this post is eerily similar to the title of a film starring Jonny Depp, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”  It was intended to be so, I thought it was clever and my capacity to create witty blog titles is in short supply this evening.  However, Valencia is not a person with mental instabilities who employs hundreds of orange-colored servants, but rather a beautiful beach city on the southeast coast of Spain where we spent a lovely two days this weekend. 

Before I launch into this weekend’s adventures, I’ll give a quick recap of my week. Tuesday we saw a production of “Sonrisas y Lágrimas,” aka “The Sound of Music” translated into Spanish.  It was an interesting experience to be sure, and they remained true to the melodies of all the songs in the musical.  My favorite Spanish adaptation was “Tengo dieciseis, casi diecisiete…” which is a phrase I think even you gringos can figure out on your own.  ;)  Wednesday night was Halloween, and just because I am in Spain did not mean I was going to forgo dressing up on this American holiday.  My roommate Chloé and I dressed up as hunger games tributes and attended the Halloween party our professor threw for us at his humble abode.  Agreeing to accommodate eighteen overexcited college girls dressed up and ready to eat all the sugary treats they can lay their hands upon is no small feat, and he suffered through all of our craziness like a champ.  Once we woke up from our sugar comas the next day, we enjoyed our day off of school by visiting the Thyssen museum, with pieces dating from the 1400’s to present day displayed across all three stories of the museum in chronological order.  It was an absolutely brilliant layout, and it also helped me to pinpoint exactly which type of paintings and time periods I find most appealing.  For any who are curious, my favorite eras are Italian 17^th century paintings and North American 19^th century paintings. 

Now, back to Valencia.  Our first stop was the highly anticipated Lladró factory, and due to the fact that everyone arrived in a timely fashion to board the bus and the wonderful flexibility of the employees of the factory, we were able to take a TOUR of the factory as soon as we arrived!  We arrived a little later than expected, but we had only missed the group by ten or fifteen minutes, so we were able to join up with them no problem without having missed much.  For those of you who are unaware, Lladró is an extremely prestigious porcelain sculpture company that is known throughout the world for their beautiful and flawlessly crafted figurines.  You have most likely seen at least one Lladró in your life in the home of your mother or grandmother.  The Lladró company is based out of Valencia, Spain and they ship their pieces to various different countries, especially the United States. 

As soon as we were escorted behind the scenes of the Lladró factory, I was immediately overwhelmed with the sheer quantity of all the statues in the process of being created.  All around me were hundreds, if not thousands of porcelain statues various stages of completion.  As we were walked through the production area and walked through all the various steps it takes to make a Lladró porcelain masterpiece, I gained even more respect for these statues and the people who work so meticulously every day to create, in a word, perfection.  The statues are first made in various pieces in alabaster and later reproduced and pieced together in porcelain.  Once they are connected and assembled into the full statue, a small hole is made in the bottom to ensure that the air can enter and exit safely and without damage when baked in the kiln.  The pieces are then glazed by hand to add the various colors required for each and every part of the statue.  There are over a thousand differently colored glazes that Lladró uses currently, and there is constant research being done to discover new colors.  All of the workers know the colors by name so that they can be sure not to err in their color choice, especially since the physical color of the glaze is not the same as the way the glaze will look on the statue once the piece has been fired.  Figurines also lose 15% of their mass after they are fired due to the evaporation of water, so the final piece is often significantly smaller than it is during the construction process.  When painting the human faces of figurines, liquid porcelain is added to the glaze during the manual painting process in order to add volume as well as pigment.  This allows the artists to sculpt the ideal expression and skin tone of the piece simultaneously, all with the touch of a paintbrush. 

An artist adding glaze to a piece by hand

When adding flowers to a piece, the pigment is pre-added to the clay so that the artists can simply sculpt the flowers by hand without having to go back and glaze each petal individually later in the process.  The flowers are kept in a small box as the artists sculpt them in order to ensure that they don’t dry out before they are attached to the figurine.  Some figures have over 400 flowers, which can take the artist three of four days to complete.  We had the opportunity to watch some of these artists at work, and although I watched this woman’s every move I could hardly believe the ease in which she constructed these small and elegant roses, tulips, and daisies as we all hovered over her.  Not only did she commit no errors as we watched her, but she seems to be completely undisturbed by our presence and actually spoke to us a few times and answered some of our questions.  Talk about patience and foolproof concentration!  After all parts of a piece have been glazed with their appropriate colors, the entire figure is coated in a bright blue varnish, which appears as only a shiny clear coat once the piece is fired and allows the other glazed colors to shine through.  The pieces are then fired in one of the six large ovens for 24 hours: 12 hours of maximum heat, and 12 hours of cooler temperature.  Due to hygienic reasons, we were not permitted to physically see the ovens, but we were able to see all the other steps of the process I have just described. 

 

We were then walked through the shop, with every Lladró figurine I had seen on the online store, in my mother’s display cabinet, and many more.  Although the traditional Lladró style figurines are painted in light and simple pastels, many of their newer pieces are infused with bright and lively color, liquid silver, or even liquid gold.  Every figurine was absolutely breathtaking, and after such an enlightening tour of the factory my awe for these pieces had at least tripled.  As I walked around trying to keep my jaw from hanging permanently agape, I encountered this quote on the wall.  I liked the Spanish version best, but I will share the English one on this blog:

“We want our works to be elegant, expressive, to exude life and to have feelings.  We want them to reflect the good side of life, the positive values of all human beings, and all things which dignify life.” 

-Juan, José, and Vicente Lladró

If I had not already had my heart set on purchasing my mother a new Lladró figurine for Christmas, that quote would have convinced me to buy something from the company right there on the spot.  Could there be a more profound and captivating mission statement than that to accompany such splendid porcelain figurines? 

Next we went over to the discounted Lladró shop, which was truly a heaven sent blessing to people on a college budget, or any budget for that matter.  This shop is connected to the factory and filled with just about every piece displayed in the normal Lladró shop, all of them with what the staff of the Lladró factory had deemed as “errors.”  Most of these flaws are imperceptible to the human eye, making the almost half price discount definitely worth it.  Almost every girl in our group walked out of the factory with at least one Lladró box and, in my case especially, a beaming smile that always accompanies purchasing something for a loved one. 

We made a brief pit stop at our hotel and were soon back on the bus, this time with our guide, who gave us a lovely tour of the most famous parts of the city.  We got off a few times, firstly to see up close the modern architecture of the famous Spanish architect, sculptor and structural engineer by the name of Santiago Calatrava.  He was born in rural Valencia and is now known throughout the world for the miracles he can create with buildings, many of which are located in his beloved hometown.  We also toured the Lonja de Valencia, saw another lavishly adorned cathedral, snapped some pictures of ruins located underneath a fountain that were discovered during the construction of one of the cathedrals, and ended our visit at an Horchata restaurant.  I split a glass with Kensie, and I realized that Valencia did in fact live up to their reputation for the best horchata in the country.  However, Spanish horchata has nothing on Mexican horchata; I will stand by that opinion to the grave. 

Paella de Marisco...me hace agua la boca

Shortly thereafter, we went in search for the most famous dish of Valencia: PAELLA.  In a sentence, paella is a combination of mouthwatering rice cooked to slightly crunchy perfection infused with fresh vegetables, seasonings, and luscious forms of meat.  My personal favorite is paella de marisco, which is seafood paella.  I split a pot of this yummy goodness with one of my girlfriends and I savored every bite.  My mouth is watering right now just thinking about this popular Spanish dish.  For dessert, I had two scoops of gelato; a heaping scoop of cheesecake-flavored gelato topped a smaller portion of a subtle and tart scoop of pineapple.  Oh, it was a good night. 

After a fun evening of staying up until the wee hours of the morning chatting it up as only college girlfriends can, we retired to our separate rooms.  Today was not particularly eventful, but this morning I had time for a lovely morning stroll to the beach, where we found the coolest sandcastle I have ever seen in person and stuck our toes in the soft, damp sand and admired the ocean view.  I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here in Spain, and I can hardly believe that I only have one more weekend trip here before it’s all over.  Until we meet again, Valencia…