My Heart Beats Blue

A name that is a motto

“Our heart beats blue” – that is the sentence we sign our studio videos with. One pattern in the catalogue carries it in its name, only in the first person: My Heart Beats Blue, number PS 021. It is the simplest answer to the question of what this pattern means to the studio.

What the pattern is made of

Everything happens in a single colour. The walls of the pieces are covered in tiny, densely scattered cobalt hearts – they sit on daisies embossed in the piece itself, barely visible under the glaze. A fine cobalt line runs along the rim. Inside bowls and plates the hearts form a rosette – and that is what makes the difference between a mug and a bowl in this pattern: the mug shows the rhythm, the bowl shows the centre.

The daisies beneath the hearts are not painted – they are embossed in the piece itself, which arrives at the studio ready-made from the mould. Only then does the paint go on. From a distance you see only the hearts; the relief reveals itself in the hand, against the light.

Heart by heart

Every heart is a separate print of a sponge stamp on bisque. With a pattern this dense, rhythm is everything: the prints must sit close together without running into each other. A different pressure, a different amount of paint on the sponge – which is why no two mugs in this pattern are ever identical.

Before firing the hearts are lilac and matt. They only turn cobalt under the glaze, in the second firing at 1240 °C. That is why the pattern does not wear off in everyday use or fade in the wash – the care rules are the same for all our pottery. The whole journey from paper to kiln is described in how a pattern is made on pottery from Bolesławiec.

Hearts in the Lady Blue catalogue – how they differ

The heart returns to our catalogue several times, and each time it means something different:

• My Heart Beats Blue – tiny hearts only, densely packed, one colour.
• Gingerbread Heart – large cobalt hearts, peacock eyes and small flowers; a classic Bolesławiec arrangement.
• Heart with Blue Wings – hearts scattered in rays with light blue dots, and a single winged heart at the top.
• Red Hearts with Little Wings – red hearts in rows, divided by cobalt dots.
• Hearts in Cobalt – the same arrangement in rows with dots, only in a single colour.

PS 021 is most easily confused with Hearts in Cobalt, because both patterns are single-colour. The difference is in the arrangement: in Hearts in Cobalt the hearts stand in even rows divided by dots; in My Heart Beats Blue they sit closer together, with no dots and no rows – on a ground of daisies. If you want hearts, but not as the first thing anyone notices on the table, PS 021 is the quietest of the five.

What to pair it with, and on which pieces

The single colour means the pattern goes effortlessly with other cobalt patterns from Lady Blue – a mug in hearts next to a plate in Bolesławiec Elephants looks like a set, although it is not one. It is a pattern for the whole year: the same bowl suits morning porridge and Christmas Eve borscht alike.

For the current list of pieces in this pattern – mugs, bowls, plates, whatever is in the range right now – see the pattern page. You can put together your own set in a single pattern in the set builder.

As a gift

This is the pattern our customers most often choose for Valentine’s Day and as a wedding gift. But a pattern for the whole year holds its own without an occasion – a mug in hearts is a gift that needs no date in the calendar.