Production and materials

The material of all Arabia tableware is vitreous china. Hard fired and dense vitro porcelain is a very durable material for daily use. Previously Arabia has produced also earthenware, feldspathic porcelain, stoneware and bone china.


Shaping the dish

Plates and platters
A dry and granular body - a granulate - is used in dry pressing. The granulate is fed into the mould, where the dish is given its shape under high pressure.

Cups and bowls, saucers and plates
A plastic body is used in moulding. A measured amount of the plastic body is placed in the mould itself (cups and bowls) or on top of it (saucers and plates), and then it is moulded mechanically.

Cup handles, jugs and vases
A liquid body is used when casting. The liquid body is placed in the plaster mould. Pressure casting is the lastest method used: the object is cast in a porous mould under pressure.

Finishing and glazing

Decorations and glazing give the finishing touch. Cups and plates are glazed by mechanically spraying the glaze on to the surface of the dish. Other objects are glazed by dipping them into glaze by hand. All the glazes used by Arabia are lead-free, making them environmentally friendly and safe to use.

Some decorations are painted on the objects before glazing, as are the decorations on Ulla Procopé's Valencia tableware. Our latest method is to use a pad printing machine, which enables us to print pictures on to the surfaces of plates and platters. The process is automated and uses silicone pads for printing. Transfer decoration is most often performed on glazed and fired surfaces, i.e. on glostware.

Firing

A one-time firing suffices for undecorated products and for products with underglaze decorations. The firing takes 20 hours, and the temperature is 1260 °C.

Products that have been decorated with transfers go through a decoration firing at either 1200 °C or 890 °C. The decoration sinks into the glaze when firing at the higher temperature. All items fired at 1200 °C or more are dishwasher safe.