Buying Custom Porcelain China in Hong Kong : Two factories let you design your own dinnerware for half the cost in America.

In Hong Kong, you can design your own dinnerware--soup bowls to nut dishes--and emblazon it with your astrological sign, your initials or a hastily researched family crest. You can strew it with your favorite flowers, adorn it with doodles or simply match it to the dining room draperies.

You can create your own design, hire an artist to create one for you, clip something you like out of a magazine, copy Grandma’s plates from the old country or duplicate a design that might have been created for Cleopatra or Napoleon or Bart Simpson. You can even put a slogan or message on your plate so that when your guests dig into the linguine, they’ll uncover something like “You’re OK” or “Save the Spotted Owl” or “No Nukes in Burbank.” Hong Kong’s porcelain factory artists will duplicate any design except a copyrighted pattern. If you haven’t got a clue as to what you want, they will make suggestions on the spot, or you can choose from one of the factory’s many standard patterns, which are on display.

Once you’ve settled on a pattern, there are decisions about shape and style: traditional round or contemporary hexagonal, fluted edges, or plain, with 14-karat gold rims or without, tall teacups or squat. The price for a complete custom-designed set of china, service for 12, including dinner plates, luncheon plates, salad plates, soup bowls, cups, saucers and serving dishes--96 pieces in all--will cost in the neighborhood of $500, depending on the complexity of the design you choose. Add another $100 for shipping from Hong Kong to Los Angeles.

Typical retail prices for porcelain china purchased in the United States vary widely, but you can expect to pay a minimum of about $100 per place setting. Quality varies, and the finest porcelain can cost up to $1,000 per setting at home. By purchasing porcelain at the factory in Hong Kong, you’ll save a minimum of 50% over porcelain purchased in the United States. And you’ll get your own customized pattern.

True porcelain is a type of ceramic ware characterized by a translucent, glassy quality and a clear ringing sound when struck. It is hard, white, non-porous and usually glazed, and is made of kaolin, feldspar and quartz or flint. (Porcelain is sometimes referred to as china, after the country of its origin.) Bone china is a more durable type of porcelain, containing real bone from cattle.

Porcelain is something that you can generally buy with confidence in Hong Kong, for the Chinese have been master ceramists for about 10,000 years. Ceramic pots, beautifully decorated with fish, frogs and deer, have been discovered from the Neolithic Yang-shao culture dating back 6,000 years. As early as the Shang period (1700-1066 BC), Chinese potters had kilns that produced hard, glasslike coatings on their ceramics.

You won’t find custom porcelain factories on every Hong Kong street corner, but then, most true discoveries take a little effort. We visited two of the largest companies, both of which have been in business for years and deal regularly with Western customers.

The Overjoy Porcelain Factory is a 30-minute train ride out of central Hong Kong to the New Territories. Even after you’ve located the building, finding the showroom is like wandering in a maze. We wished we had brought cookies to leave a trail of crumbs, as Hansel and Gretel did to find their way back out of the forest. We finally found the showroom in the back of the building on the second floor.

Overjoy factory owner Josephine Ku speaks excellent English. The company has been in business for 25 years, shipping custom china to customers in Europe, the United States, Canada and other Asian countries. At the time we visited, it was preparing a magnificent black-and-gold set for a Malaysian diplomat.

Ku suggests that you bring a paper drawing or photograph of what you want, along with a color sample. The company will then make up a sample dish for your approval, before it makes the whole set. It normally takes a week to make the sample, however Ku says the company will do its best to accommodate your travel schedule and prepare your sample before you leave Hong Kong.

Although the sample will be executed at the Hong Kong showroom, the set itself will be made in mainland China, where labor is cheaper. Colors used at the Overjoy Porcelain Factory are lead-free and conform to USDA standards.

The Ah Chow Porcelain Factory does all of its work on the spot. The factory is in Kowloon, closer to the tourist areas, but it’s not necessarily easier to find. Ah Chow is upstairs in a factory complex of amazing intricacy. Once we found the factory, we were fascinated to watch the work in progress. Artists were sketching and painting on porcelain. Even the kilns were right there, although they were not fired during our visit.

Prices at Ah Chow were comparable to those at Overjoy, and Mr. W.S. Ku (no relation), the factory manager, also speaks excellent English. One factory might have the advantage over the other on certain objects such as garden urns or lamps, but not to any appreciable degree. The advantage to buying from Ah Chow is the immediacy of having the work done on the spot. The main disadvantage is that the paints used are not lead-free. For tableware, Ku suggests choosing a border design contained on the rim of the plate, and leaving the center, where the food rests, white--glazed but unpainted.

In addition to customized dinner and tea services, both factories offer a large selection of gift ware, accessories and Chinese art objects, all of which can be customized with your own pattern. For example, large porcelain fish bowls, suitable for using as coffee-table bases, were $100; lamps were $50-$75, and serving platters less than $20. A porcelain teapot with two matching cups, all tucked in a lidded basket with a quilted interior, sold for $38 in the retail shops around Hong Kong, but was $13 at Ah Chow. (Before purchasing, be sure to inquire about lead content in any piece from which you plan to eat or drink.)

It was the search for an artificial jade that inspired much of the Chinese experimentation in ceramics. Yue ware, characterized by simple, elegantly shaped bowls, urns and jars with rich glazes of willow green or brown, was produced from the 1st Century through the 7th. Called celadon in the West, this type of ceramic ware is still prized by the Chinese.

Tea drinking, in vogue during the Tang dynasty (AD 618-906), brought about the production of exquisite tea services. It was Marco Polo who first brought news of Chinese ceramics to the West.

By the 17th Century, no self-respecting European king was without his china treasures and customized dinner service. It wasn’t until the 18th Century that the first European porcelain was produced in Dresden--almost a thousand years after the first Chinese porcelain.

Over the centuries, fine kilns have operated all over China. Since 1949, the central government has encouraged this traditional art, and reopened a number of potteries, some of which had been closed for hundreds of years. Although many exceptional pieces of art are produced, most of the production is aimed at exportable dinnerware.

GUIDEBOOK

Hong Kong

Factories

Getting there: To get to Overjoy and Ah Chow, we used the MTR, the Hong Kong underground rapid-transit system, which is the easiest-to-use metro we’ve ever encountered. Before going, it is advisable to have your hotel concierge write the name and address of your destination in Chinese kuju script. Most taxi drivers and most people outside central Hong Kong do not speak English, and these factories do take some effort to locate.

Overjoy Porcelain Factory: 10-18 Chun Pin St., 1st Floor, Block A-B, Kwai Hing Industrial Bldg., Kwai Chung, New Territories, Hong Kong; from U.S. telephones, dial 011-852-487-0615. Take the MTR to Kwai Hing station. It’s a five-minute taxi ride from there.

Ah Chow Factory: 489-491 Castle Peak Road, Hong Kong Industrial Centre, 7th Floor, Block B, B1-B3, Kowloon, Hong Kong; 011-852-745-1511. Take the MTR to Lai Chi Kok station and walk. The factory is in the same block as the station exit.

For more information: Contact the Hong Kong Tourist Assn., 10940 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1220, Los Angeles 90024-3915, (310) 208-4582.