Lladro Porcelain Art
The
Lladro (pronounced "yadro") porcelain art is simply the highest
end of ceramic art in a city famous for its ceramics. It is the Mozart
of the trade.
The Lladro brothers are just three incredibly talented artists who went from zero to hero. They started in a Valencian ceramic tiles factory like many others. In 1953 they built a small Moorish kiln in their back yard and began creating their own visions. Now the Lladro are a multi-national art corporation who have shaken hands with various presidents, popes and kings. New York, London, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, amongst others, have Lladro shops.
Strictly speaking, porcelain is not what the Valencian ceramics are. But porcelain is a type of ceramic art, and it is their roots in the Valencian culture that created a base for the world of the Lladro.
The Essence of Lladro
"A
unique creation that tells in its own terms the best of this life"
- so the Lladro defines its work.
From their very beginning Lladro ventured into the world of dreams, innovation and courageous, perfectionist aesthetics. Even their more traditional pieces don't quite look old fashioned. The Lladro now have a whole army of ultra-talented artists who keep pushing the limits in designing new visions. It is pure art. The Lladro have created such a style of their own that anyone employed at the factory (apart from professional designers) has to be trained there - there is simply no other place to learn the ways of Lladro.
The Lladro figuirnes are known for vision in design, for incredible detail, for impeccable work with paint, for a very special combination with light, and for the emotional impact. That last one comes from the trademark of Lladro - facial expressions. It is something the Lladro artists pay special attention to, and it is something that makes their figurines truly alive.
Lladro porcelain is simply unbelievable. You probably can't afford it but it is one of the most incredible art exhibitions in the city.
Hand Made Art
Although
the Lladro factory (The
City of Porcelain) is a large complex producing many thousands figurines
per day, all of those are hand made. The liquid porcelain is poured into
templates designed by artists. Even the smallest Lladro figurine will
have many separately produced parts, sometimes as little as one finger.
The number of parts can easily go well into several hundred. Then the
figurines are assembled and painted by several artists. There are Lladro
artists specialising in facial expressions only, or in flowers and cloth
only. Even what looks to you like cloth is still made of porcelain. The
final figurine ends up with 5 or 6 signatures of all of the artists who
worked on it. Then the figurine is baked for 24 hours, with maximum temperature
of 1300°C, shrinks to 80% of its size and is ready to go.
The whole process is incredibly delicate. Porcelain is very easy to spoil, both by pressure and by paint, and Lladro prides itself on perfectionism. The artists are all ultra-professionals, trained in that very factory.
Prices
The Lladro is expensive. The smallest, simplest Lladro figurine will go for 100€, normally they are between 500€ and several thousand. The bigger ones can go all the way to 10-16 thousand euros. The Lladro will send it to your home anywhere in the world (and a broken figurine has never happened) and give you a 1 year guarantee, no questions asked. If you drop it on the floor within that one year, you will be sent a new one.
Visiting Lladro
You can either go to the Lladro shop in the centre (Poeta Querol 9, 
Google
Map , 96 3511625, 10 am - 2 pm / 4 pm - 8 pm Mon-Sat, closed
Sundays), or visit the Lladro City
of Porcelain factory on the outskirts, where you can have a fascinating
tour of the creative process from start to finish. The City of Porcelain
also has a shop.