Kaolin, the fine grain native white clay which is used to create Polish pottery, is of such high quality it is also used to make fine porceline dishes. This natural resource is abundant in the Boleslawiec earth. Once drawn from local quarries, the clay is brought to the pottery factory to be processed.
The transformation from clump of earth to charming heirloom quality pottery begins with a spin in the crusher machine. Water is added in and pressed out until the proper clay consistency is reached.

Once the clay is prepared, there are different methods of working it. Anyone who's seen the movie "Ghost" is familiar with the potter's wheel. Gypsum molds are used for vessels type pieces such as pitchers and vases. The variety of available forms (Zaklady alone offers 1300 shapes and sizes) is due to the flexabilty of these molds. Most of the wares, especially the hollow pieces, can't be used terribly long and must be thrown out and recreated every few weeks to a couple of months. Six months is about the longest a mold lasts.

Once form pieces are dried, they are cleaned and pre-burnt to fix the fine white layer to which the design will be put on.
The different cooperatives employ similar methods for applying the pattern.
Originally they stamped the design on using vegetable stamps, the potato in particular. The stamps are more high tech now, but the process is still the same.

Occasionally brushes will be used for certain designs. Pieces from Zaklady are decorated by hand in over 170 patterns using a technique seen only from Boleslawiec potteries.
This time consuming process uses one or more of ten different sized punches to fill the ceramic with paint. The number of punches made on a piece can be into the thousands.
The paint used on Polish Pottery has a distinct absence of harmful substances, no lead or chromium. They are completely nontoxic.
On the picture on the left you can see how the pattern stamping is done

The designed pieces are then submerged in glaze that is stored in huge vats. This glaze over design process started way back in the Baroque period helps the Polish pottery to resist cracking, chipping, and scratching. Once glaze is in place, the pieces are fired in coal and gas kilns at temperatures of 1220 - 1350 Celsius or 2246 - 3000 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 hours before cooling and removal to shelves.