This is a recently closed factory that used to manufacture ceramic, porcelain and gypsum items.

Compact production system was employed here, which means everything was done inside a single building.

Some very nice hand-crafted articles were produced at this factory, and it’s a shame when independent and unique workshops like this one are shut down.

Eye candy is abundant in this place, nearly every square foot of space presented opportunities for taking a beautiful photo or even a few.

The building of the factory has a complex shape and consists of several working areas, baking ovens, a large semi-finished items and casting moulds storage, art workshops and multiple small rooms of various purpose.

To start with, I’ll show you some overall views of the manufacturing facilities and equipment

Unfortunately, I don’t know very well what all these things are called and what they were used for

Nice-looking passages between different parts of the building

The modeling workshops are very wet — the roof is leaking, the unfinished figurines are soaked, the shelves have collapsed.

The baking ovens are large and really cool. I attended a clay modeling club when I was a child. The school principal used to tell us every year that she would allocate some money to buy an amateur baking oven, and every year she would not cough it up.

That old witch. The club stopped functioning after a while.

And here is the storage for the finished but unpainted items

Series-produces figurines were made using casting molds, but they were still hand-crafted.

The dishes were sometimes also crafted using molds, but small-batch ones were made with pottery wheels.

One of the art workshops – coating, paint and color samples

The ovens for enamel roasting.

Everything is so colorful and pretty!

Beautiful objects were manufactured here, and many people probably still have similar things at their homes, on the shelves and in china cabinets. Such beauty is not meant to simply be stuffed into a cupboard.

Somebody broke the gun barrel off the cannon, and it is only possible to take a photo while holding it up.

Sometimes it is useful to explore the dark corners

And when I was in the large and well-lit workshops, I was flushed with sadness.

How much human labor was wasted! Was it really so hard to finish the half-done work and take it away from this wet building?

But alas, dishes made in China are cheaper and in a higher demand.

Porcelain, gypsum, clay, water, dirt and dust – now it is all mixed together.

Images by lana Sator