Anna Krejci came to Bolesławiec for the first time after a long absence. It was all because of the pandemic. She was unable to attend the 2020 Ceramics Festival. She participated virtually in Bolesławiec and commented from istotne.pl on the opening of the 26th Bolesławiec Ceramics Festival.

During this year's visit, Anna met with her artist friends. She visited Millena Ceramics, spent a Polish evening making meat products at Kaola Ceramics, and admired the work of Rutyna Ceramics and Manufaktura. She presented her entire visit to Americans on her Facebook page, Surroundings Polish Pottery.

“I spent the first day with my wonderful friends from Millena Ceramics,” Anna Krejci recounts her visit to Bolesławiec Anna Krejci. “It was very exciting because I visited their new branch, which they will soon open in Grodziec. For me, it is incredibly inspiring to see people working so hard to give others jobs, especially during the pandemic. They create wonderful ceramics and want to preserve the historic buildings located around Grodziec Castle. I visited Jarek Rutyna's wonderful ceramics workshop. I am very interested in technology. I want to show people that creating ceramic vessel forms is not easy, that it is not just about stamps. I also visited my friends at Manufaktura. All this was to show the places where Bolesławiec ceramics are made, to show the history of ceramic vessels, as well as where they are created and who makes them,” Anna adds.

Anna makes sure that buyers in the USA learn about the ceramic tradition of Bolesławiec and its surroundings and experience the atmosphere of the smaller and larger ceramics workshops from which the products imported to the United States come. Living in Bolesławiec, we are so accustomed to ceramics that we do not always notice the enormous potential hidden in clay products. Anna sees it and presents it across the ocean, and everywhere she goes, in a simple and very sincere way.

“Americans ask whether these beautiful pots can be put in the oven,” says Anna Krejci. “And Poles think there is only one ceramics workshop in Bolesławiec”—that is how she comments on her encounters with new customers.

Anna comes from southern Poland. She left for the United States a long time ago and had no contacts in Bolesławiec. She became fascinated by the cobalt stamps during one of her visits to the Bolesławiec Ceramics Festival.

“I invited myself to Bolesławiec,” says Anna Krejci. “I came here for the Ceramics Festival and met extraordinary people: the team from Kaola Ceramics and my friend Wiesia from Millena Ceramics. And that is how it began,” Anna adds.

In Louisville, Anna runs her own business and the Surroundings Polish Pottery store, located in a beautifully renovated wedding chapel.

“I have always renovated old houses and had a hunger for tradition,” Anna said during a live interview on the day the 2020 Ceramics Festival opened. “The windows of my store have beautiful stained-glass windows made by a woman from Bolesławiec, Jolanta Koźmin. Thanks to the stained glass made by this Bolesławiec artist, the chapel converted into a store has an extraordinary atmosphere, bringing together two cultures—the American and the Polish,” Anna Krejci explained.

This marriage of two cultures resulted, among other things, in Kaola Ceramics creating large ceramic mugs, just right for the needs of American coffee lovers. The half-liter mug is called Anka, after Anna Krejci. The 0.7-liter mug was named Goliath. The Anna mug was specially designed. It has no attached handle; the mug is cast from a single mold. The Goliath mug is inspired by the beauty of Grodziec Castle and the history of the region. Both mugs also feature beautiful floral decoration emphasizing their full—“feminine,” as Anna puts it—shape.

Americans love the way Anna presents the culture of Poland and Bolesławiec. Under a short film from her stay in Bolesławiec, Jenny Murray wrote:

We love Anna here in the U.S. The culture, beauty and art of Poland she shares with us is wonderful! As a bonus, we also receive Polish language lessons! We can’t wait to visit Poland and experience everything Anna has so proudly shared of her country!

We love Anna in the USA. The culture, beauty and art of Poland that she shares with us are wonderful! As a bonus, we also receive Polish language lessons! We cannot wait to visit Poland and experience everything Anna so proudly shares about her country!

Anna talks about her stay in the city of ceramics in a short recording made on the last day of her stay in Bolesławiec