Pantone is an American company known worldwide for its famous colour charts. Every year, the company’s experts predict which colour will be considered the most ‘on trend’ in a given year. In 2024, it is the peach fuzz shade, which the AS Ćmielów factory used to prepare unique products from Ćmielów porcelain. AS Ćmielów figurines and objects are often traded as collectors’ items. Their uniqueness is linked to the shortness of the series and, consequently, their unavailability. This is also the case this time.
The Pantone Institute has been selecting the ‘colour of the year’ for over twenty years. This time, the choice of the American colour experts fell on the juicy ‘peach fuzz’. Just like last year, Fabryka Porcelany AS Ćmielów decided to use it to create a special collection. As the makers of Ćmielów porcelain point out, the very presentation of ‘colour’ is one of the most anticipated events in the world of fashion and design. Hence, since last year, specially created collections precisely in the ‘most iconic’ colour of the year. In 2023, it was “viva magenta” and porcelain products were created in this colour for the first time.
As Katarzyna Rij says, porcelain products in the most ‘fashionable’ colour according to Pantone are becoming quite a treat for collectors.
Thanks to the fact that AS Ćmielów releases several items in Pantone’s colour of the year every year, they become an object of collectors’ desire. As we know, every collection has a certain key. Now it is the ‘colour of the year’ that may become the new criterion for collectors. Until now, it was mainly the name of the artist or the subject matter of the figurines,’ says Katarzyna Rij, an expert on ćmiel porcelain and also a marshal and curator of exhibitions.
“Joy” and “Iris”
This year, just after the announcement of the most popular colour, the porcelain collection was again prepared. The iconic “Joy” vase (according to a design from the 1960s) was produced in juicy “peach fuzz”, which brings a lot of joy and optimism to interiors in this colour variant.
There is also the “Iris” cup (designed by Adam Spała), from which one can enjoy, for example, … peach tea. It certainly tastes luxurious, especially as this cup is hand-decorated in 24-carat liquid gold.
“Sayako” harking back to the design of yesteryear
The “Sayako” figurine completes the collection. It was inspired in 2005 by the figure of Sayako Kuroda (formerly a high princess in the imperial court). It was at that time that she left the imperial palace to marry Yoshiki Kuroda, a city official and a person not connected to the court. Now she has her own statue, and in the ‘colour of the year’.
As Catherine Rij, the designer of this particular figurine, describes, the design shows a beautiful, shapely woman, with the fringe very characteristic of the former princess.
The model refers to the design of the 1960s – characterised by simplified solids, emphasised only by colour, where not only the form itself but also the decoration designed for it played an important role, says Katarzyna Rij.
Only now
Each cup, figurine and vase, like other products from the AS Ćmielów factory, are handmade from the highest quality porcelain and hand-painted. The cups are decorated with specially prepared ceramic paint, which is then picked out by the painters into characteristic dots on the cups and saucers. Only then is the decoration fixed at a high temperature.
How much does the limited collection cost? The Joy vase costs £549, the Sayako figurine £649 and the Iris cup £579.
It is worth noting that the products in the ‘peach fuzz’ colour variant are only produced and sold in 2024. They can be purchased at Fabryka Porcelany AS Ćmielów, Galeria van Rij in Kraków (ul. Morsztynowska 1) and online. You can find out more interesting stories about the contemporary face and history of Ćmielów porcelain by visiting the Living Porcelain Museum in Ćmielów and the aforementioned Galeria van Rij in Kraków. It is run by Katarzyna Rij.
source: AS Ćmielów
Read also: Ceramics | Curiosities | Crockery | Pantone | whiteMAD on Instagram
