Each piece of our Cambria Dinnerware, from the tiny Tidbit Plates to the spacious Serve Bowls, starts out as a simple slab of clay in a Portugal factory. Skilled employees — many who have worked in ceramics for all of their lives — take each piece of clay through a painstaking process to produce our beautiful line of dinner and serveware.
Although much of the work is done with the aid of machines, each step also requires work to be done by hand. Cleaning the clay, applying patina and finalizing the shape by hand makes each and every piece of Cambria a unique piece of art. Take a look at the amazing process, from start to finish, below.
First, large pieces of clay are cut to size for the press machine. Each piece of clay is sized to the type of dish it will create.
The slabs are then placed on a press machine. Specialists carefully monitor the process to make sure the pieces are molded accurately and without defect.
Once the clay is molded and pressed, extra clay is cut off, and the shape is fine tuned with a roller machine.
Here, one of the Portugal factory’s many skilled workers finishes a shaped piece with a wet sponge to clean the edges.
Then, the pieces are left to dry on racks.
Once dry, patina is applied with a brush by hand to give each piece visual texture and depth.
The Cambria pieces are then glazed with a machine for cohesive, continuous color and cooked in a kiln.
Here’s a shot of the colorfully glazed complete product. The meticulous process makes each piece just a little bit different — a true piece of art.
Every piece of Cambria is carefully inspected before its labeled, packed and shipped off to your home.