Friday, January 29, 2010

Strange stories about Vietnamese pottery

The biggest flower-vases

There is no other place in Vietnam displaying so many giant flower-vases of all sizes like the house of artisan Le Minh Ngoc in Bat Trang pottery village in Gia Lam (Hanoi). Here, the shortest jar is 1.5m high, a medium one is about 2.5m and the highest can nearly reach the ceiling.

Firstly, he made 0.45 m-high vases and he has gradually raised the height of them to 1m, 1.2m, 1.8m, 2m and 2.5m and all the time his passion for this work also grew. After many years of researching and creating, he is now the only artisan in Bat Trang who can make flower-vases of 2m high or higher.

In 1996, he decided to make two 5.6m-high flower-vases, as high as the banian tree in his village, to the wonder of everyone. On the day of opening the kiln, all the villagers were eager to see his products but regrettably, the vases were deformed. At that time Le Minh Ngoc was completely dispirited.

The two flower-vases were made in 2002 with their height of 3.2m, diameter of 0.94m and weight of 170kg. They were recorded in the Vietnam’s Guinness Book in September 2004. These vases are so big and high that Ngoc had to build a new kiln for them and they need ten strong people to carry.

Recently Ngoc has found kaolin (a kind of clay) in Quang Ninh and intends to produce some 5.4 m high vases.


The "Pottery Road" project

This is a project to celebrate the 1000th Thang Long – Hanoi anniversary.

It's 6km-long colorful mosaic covering the dike from Au Co Road through Nghi Tam, Yen Phu, Tran Nhat Duat and Tran Khanh Du roads.

To implement the project, Nguyen Thu Thuy and a team of Vietnamese and international artists have created many pottery works based on traditional materials of famous pottery craft villages such as Bat Trang Village outside Hanoi.They have also adorned the ceramic mural with unique cultural motifs and patterns of different dynasties, such as designs of Thang Long architecture of the Ly Dynasty (1010-1225), artifacts found in the Thang Long citadel archaeological site, brown flowed pottery of the Tran Dynasty (1225-1400) and sculptures in the 17th-18th centuries.

The Pottery Road is trying to acquire the Guinness Record 2010 for the longest pottery road in the world.

Source: TkCeramics - Vietnamese pottery

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