This article is intended to give you the foundation for understanding the basics behind polish pottery unikat patterns. For informational purposes when I speak of most things regarding Polish Pottery, I am making reference to the Ceramika Artystyczna factory. Widely considered the premier factory, their pottery is synonymous with style, creativity, quality and variety. While there are other places that produce lovely, quality work, this is the factory that I typically fall back to.
When it comes to unikat (translation: unique) patterns, they vary based on difficulty. The most expensive pottery will usually be at least 80% brush work (as opposed to stamp work) and can be recreated by only a few artists. The creating artist is always given credit on the back of the work. If Jacek Chyla creates a pattern, all pieces re-created in that pattern will bear his name even if he did not paint the piece himself. High end unikat pieces are sometimes referred to as U4. Although the factory has changed the levels of patterns, U4 is still used and considered high end. It doesn’t get any better than that. The quality is no different from traditional patterns though so if you choose to take a simple route regarding pattern, know that you are getting quality every bit as good as a high end piece. I’m going to show a few examples of U4 pieces here so you can see visually brush work vs stamp work. The first picture is an example of a unikat pattern done almost completely in stamp work. Still a stunning piece but it’s easier for other artists to re-create this and more pieces can be done in less time. Whereas the other two pictures are examples of U4 which are much more time consuming resulting in less pieces in the same amount of time. This is why they are so much more expensive. If you extrapolate out the time it takes to create one piece of this compared to a traditional stamped piece, that is what you are paying for. The time. There are only so many artists and only so much time. So if you want a U4 piece you have to understand that they can only create one of those for every three of the stamped.
From this one factory alone, there are thousands of unikat patterns. This is why it is better really to mix and match. There is just so much to miss out on if you limit yourself to only one pattern.
If you want to see some beautiful polish pottery unikat patterns you can find them HERE. If you are new to Polish Pottery, don’t let these pieces give you sticker shock. Remember there are always less expensive patterns available and they are no different quality wise. These are pieces to be handed down in your family. They are not disposable. Pacific Polish Pottery has a great range of items to fit every budget and shipping is free over $99.00.
