The Saturday Market in Jingdezhen

This was written on June 30th 2018 .

Every Saturday morning there is a Saturday Market here in the courtyard of PWS. Makers are selected based on the quality of their  work and the makers are the next generation of ceramic artist who are

The market opens at 9am and my window just overlooks the courtyard where they set up and I can hear the hustle and bustle of the preparations of the market. 

I have been to the market twice since I arrived here. What I have noticed is how each artist displays their work. Less is more here and the use of fabrics and natural materials add to the work of the artist. The presentation is as important as the work itself. I have been inspired by the various displays at the market. 

This was written when I first arrived to The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen.

I arrived in Jingdezhen on June 21st. Jingdezhen is south west of Shanghai and its other title is Porcelain city. Here in Jingdezhen ceramics are on every corner, from raw ingredients, clay , tools, green ware, bisque fired ware, glazes and shops full of ceramics for sale. I am staying in the Sculpture factory in the Pottery Workshop. This area has an life of its own, everyday the public kiln is fired, people have livelihoods based around the sculpture factory’s needs. There is mould making, tools shops, public kilns, clay shops on every street. It’s a wonderland for a ceramic maker. I wandered the streets the first night I arrived and I was amazed how basic the shops and workshops are but they produce the best ceramic tools and wares. 

I am am staying in the Artist residence called Nine Windows, there are nine rooms in the building. My room looks out onto a courtyard where every Saturday there is a ceramic market. I will write about this later. In the courtyard there’s a mixture of coffee shops, ceramic shops and galleries. At the moment the PWS coffee shop is under construction( every morning there is drilling and hammering which is unfortunate for me but I am out early to the studio so it doesn’t really affect me). At night the courtyard is dark and I was lucky to have been given advice from Niall Read who was here three times to bring a torch. 

I was so busy in China that I never go to keep my blog. These are snippets into my life during my residency in the summer of 2018. Also I only had my ipad and I couldn’t use squarespace on it.

I have been here for just over 10 days here in Jingdezhen. Finally I am getting my head around the culture and way of life here in Jingdezhen. Yesterday I went shopping to Walmart of all places to get some nice illy coffee. It was a warehouse of goods. 

China June 2018

I arrived into Shanghai on Sunday the 16th of June. 

They say never use the taxis inside the airport but tiredness and jetlagged mixed I saw a sign for the Marriott hotel on one of the signs held up by a little Chinese woman so I ended up in a taxi to the Marriott. I was worried at first but settled into the journey into the city centre by looking out the widow and watching the Shanghai city come into focus. 

I stayed at the Marriott. It’s very centrally located. I was upgraded to a suite because I prepaid for breakfast.

Wow so breakfast was a feast 

There’s sections of food from India, Japan continental and of course Chinese I had Dahl and veg curry, veggie sushi, noodle with seaweed and tofu, Chinese dumpling which tasted of nothing, fresh melon, pickles and watermelon juice. Burp! 

The traditional food was eaten in the traditional way . There was a large table of Indians close by the Indian food, they were tearing the beard with their hands and they ate the international cuisine with a fork.

Finding vegan food will be a challenge. 

I wandered the hotel in the evening as I wanted to check out the restaurants. I wasn’t brave enough to walk out into the humid city just yet.

The Chinese restaurant after I show them a screen grab of “I don’t eat meat “ in Chinese had a bean curd dish,other than that it was fish in the Japanese restaurant and burger and pizza in the international restaurant.

I ended up in the lobby with edename beans, peanuts and a glass of red. I wanted to have my first Chinese meal but didn’t feel hungry enough for the bean curd. 

I am looking forward to the new experiences both culturally and artistically and the challenges of not having the language. 

Firing up my new raku kiln

I used my new raku kiln during the Summer. This winter has been so wet so I have to wait until the Spring to get going again. And lucky me it's Springtime again.

Last Summer was my first time using the newly fleeced kiln. To be honest I was a bit nervous about it. Not only was it my first time in about 9 years to fire up a Raku kiln but the pressure was on as I had an exhibition coming up during the Kilkenny Arts Festival in August 2017.

The first firing took about 4 hrs to reach temperature and at the end I had to blast up the butane to get it to reach temperature of 1000 degrees Celsius. I continued using the butane ( bottles kindly donated by Bernard Kavanagh who is a wonderful friend and potter too) to fire over the summer but I think I will exchange them for a propane gas as its much hotter.  

Residency in China

Good news..I am heading over to China for 8 weeks in the summer.

I sent in an application to an International Residency programme in Jingdezhen South West of Shanghai. It's also called Porcelain City because the blue and white China originates from there.

It will be an exciting time. I hope to spend a few days exploring Shanghai before I get my feet under the desk in Jingdezhen.

I will keep a blog of my preparations for China and while I am there too 

Further details on the International Residency programme can be found on this link

http://potteryworkshop.com.cn/

my first blog post ...categories v's tags

Categories and tags ... I am building my new website and I didn't really understand the importance of categories and tags. With a bit of research I now understand that categories are like the blocks that fit into a particular hole.... remember that game when you were a baby...blocks of different shapes.. that's the one......and tags are the colours of the blocks ..now the colours don't particular impact the game... catch my drift so that's the difference. I will try out these categories and tags and see how I get on. This is a huge learning curve for me this year.