Artesa Ceramics
Creating Beauty Day After Day

Artesa candles and wall art

Artesa is a ceramics company in Cuenca known for its wide range of ceramic art and ceramic dinnerware, vases, bowls and other pieces.

Whether it's functional, like dinnerware and tea sets, or purely decorative, such as wall art and candle holders, you'll long enjoy and cherish what these artesanos have to offer.

It's a ceramic wonderland full of color and styles, some more artistic, others more personal.

We had a very hard time finding good-looking and sturdy dinnerware since coming to Ecuador. Typically, you can find good-looking and fragile, or sturdy and plain. Not now! We've found exactly what we've been looking for here.

Artesa's History

The business began about 40 years ago, started by two famous Cuenca artists, Raymundo Crespo and Eduardo Vega.

Their sons carried on the legacy, with Raymundo's son starting a studio in Loja and Eduardo's son starting one in Turi, just outside of and above Cuenca. They recently sold Artesa to the Eljuri family.

A Wide Variety of Ceramics

Ceramic figurines from Artesa

Many of Artesa's ceramics are sold in shops throughout Cuenca and around Ecuador. But you'll find the widest selection of items in Artesa's own store.

Here's a sample of what you'll find there:

• Dinnerware, including sets and individual pieces.
• Coffee mugs and tea sets.
• Candle holders, decorative plates and dishes, vases, urns and flower pots.
• Figurines, including ceramic animals.
• Wall art and table art.

Making the Ceramics

Some of Artesa's employees

Artesa is a huge production. Workers make the individual pieces in molds, from clay mixed in large machine.

The pieces are dried, then smoothed by hand. They're fired in a kiln and then decorated by skilled craftspeople and fired again.

The end result is thousands of pieces of fine ceramics that are shipped to all areas of Ecuador.

Not every piece is made in molds. Some dinner sets are entirely handmade and painted by hand. And they'll do custom orders for you.

Artesa is a large employer in Cuenca, and the helpful staff are happy to give you a tour of the factory if you're interested to see the process.

Nobody's Perfect, and It's Your Gain at Artesa

Ceramic dinnerware

A small percentage of the production at Artesa is slightly flawed. Some flaws are so small that you and I wouldn't detect them.

But the inspectors in the factory do, and they put them aside to sell in the Artesa seconds room.

You can purchase full-sized dinner plates for $2.50, smaller plates and mugs for as little as $1.00.

If you're creative and have the time, mix and match to create a festive set of dinnerware for a fraction of the cost you'd pay elsewhere.

The seconds room is open Fridays only from 9 a.m. until noon.

Click here to see a page of photos of some of the Artesa items you'll find at the store.

Artesa's Location

You can visit Artesa at Av. Isabel La Católica 1-102, just east of Av. de las Américas.

The web site is www.artesa.com.ec.

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