Chmielno Pottery

The Necel family have been making pottery in Chmielno since the eighteenth century, and the workshop has passed down through seven generations, which makes it one of the longest-running craft businesses in Poland. Kashubian ceramics follow a fixed vocabulary: a limited palette of blue, green, yellow, red and brown on white, and a set of motifs - the Kashubian star, the lily, the tulip, the fish scale, the wreath - painted freehand, with each piece thrown and decorated by hand. The workshop can be visited, the throwing and painting watched, and pieces bought at the source rather than in a tourist shop. Chmielno itself sits on a neck of land between lakes in the Kashubian Switzerland, the hilliest part of the region, which makes it a base for walking and kayaking as well. The village has a small ethnographic collection and a wooden church.

What you actually see

• Seven generations - the Necel workshop, making pottery here since the 1700s.
• Five colours and fixed motifs - the Kashubian star, lily, tulip and fish scale.
• Throwing and painting - the work done by hand and watchable in the workshop.
• A village between lakes - in the hilly Kashubian Switzerland.

When to go

May to September. Two hours.

Honest expectations

It is a working workshop, so demonstrations depend on what is being made that day and larger groups need to book. Prices reflect handwork. Much sold elsewhere as Kashubian pottery is not made this way.

Nearby

Kartuzy and its charterhouse are east; Wdzydze is south.